A Wide(r) Angle
July 2009
Blogs and Basketball……

If you are paying attention you will note a change in title from the old “President’s Exposure.” Why the change? Well, why not?  I’m the President and I have the power!!  It’s partly a case of a new broom and of course in the current politically correct environment I certainly don’t want any potential new members getting the wrong idea of what we get up to on a Tuesday night down Melville way!

The new title was inspired (OK, OK I admit it, plagiarised) from the title of a series of blogs on the Rapid City Journal website.  Now you probably have never heard of this city but it is in a dairy farming area deep in the heart of the American Upper Midwest in the state of South Dakota and, unless you are Chairman of the local Tourist Board, you would probably think it an unremarkable place. Those from north of the Bombays would no doubt say it is just like the Tron.  Hah! What do they know?  Anyway, I came across these blogs by accident during a Google search (naturally) whilst I was looking for info on wide angle lenses and as is the way of these things I began to browse the site. It’s basically a series of photo blogs by the Staff Photographers about the life and people there.  Those of you who came to our photojournalism meeting a couple of months ago will remember Mark Taylor talking about doing audio visual presentations of photos he had taken. On the Rapid City site there are photo essays, slideshows and a great project called “One Photo One Voice” i.e. a single, evocative photo with the subject doing a one minute voiceover about himself.  The blog simply documents the lives and events of ordinary people in an ordinary city.  If you are after some inspiration it’s well worth a visit. The site is http://blogs.rapidcityjournal.com/photogs/

As for the wide angle lens, I recently bought a 10.5mm fisheye lens from one of our sponsors, Snapshot Cameras on Victoria Street.  By the way it’s great to have a traditional camera shop in town with knowledgeable staff – thanks guys! The lens is not a fisheye in the classic sense, more an ultra wide angle – almost 180 degrees.  It does take some getting used to though as the distortion on the edges is really pronounced but on the upside the depth of field is amazingly deep even at quite wide apertures.  Get the composition right and you can get some really interesting perspectives on familiar subjects.  Looking at event shots you definitely feel to be a participant rather than a passive observer.  A word of warning though:  Objects In the Viewfinder Are Closer Than They Appear!!!! At a recent basketball game, crouching on the floor behind the basket trying to get a nice wide shot of a player about to slam dunk, he is suddenly muscled (quite illegally) out of the way by an opponent.  Sweet, I think, this will be a nice shot until I see the player hurtling towards me. Plenty of time to nip out of the way.  Err…no. A split second later and I would have been crushed, fly-like, against the back wall.

And finally, by the time this month’s Aperture finds its way into your Inbox/Letterbox, I shall be away on holiday so John Greenwood has kindly agreed to do an Encore and stand in for me at the next competition night.  Thanks John.

See you in July.
Geoff