When doubt is what makes the thinking man, boy, then I’m in serious trouble. The second I had seen this image on the LCD of my D200, I had no doubt at all that this would be the Image of the Day. I didn’t even have to change a bit. What you see is the JPEG right out of the camera.
I had got out quite early and weather was fine. This was the third image this morning, again with the Sigma 150/2.8 macro, wide open at f2.8. I had focused at the sunny buildings in the back, thus basically at infinity, trying to get the track going from blurry to defined.
Well, this morning I had all kinds of trouble with this lens. 150mm times 1.5, and that unstabilized, for many applications this is simply impossible. At one point I have tried to shoot upward, the camera over my head, to capture a gorgeous play of light and shadow high on a wall, but even at a minimum shutter speed of 1/100s I could not hold the shot, not even once in maybe ten attempts. I simply need a monopod for such things.
On the other hand, when I get a shot, then it is really something special, just like this one. The shallow DOF of a fast telephoto lens, together with the compression, that makes for a breathtaking perspective. This is a good example, mostly because of the near curve of the track.
The Song of the Day is again from Ray Charles’ 1958 album “Yes Indeed!!”, again the sound sample is from Amazon’s German department. It’s called “Get on the Right Track Baby”.
Ted Byrne (2007-09-20)
The virtual compression of a long lens is so often forgotten by its owner. Telephotos too frequently substitute for shoes... for walking... for getting near-enough. Other times they are merely used to dip into spots where we cannot and to scoop out an otherwise unattainable image (bird-in-tree).
So it's particularly interesting to see the way that you've taken advantage of your longer lens to make the near seem as far as the far is (if you get my point). A shorter lens would have not allowed you to make that graceful curve a part of that imposing city-set no matter where you stood. And it positively would have denied you this composition which is, of course, what makes this capture so haunting.
This is a journeyman's mastery of tools to punch through craft into art. I wonder, would you have been as able to easily do this a year or so back before you imposed a daily discipline upon yourself re making postable images?
As usual... thanks for sharing Andreas...
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