Wasn't sure which forum is appropriate for this thread, but it seems this one fits.
Yesterday, the temperature reached the 70s and I went to nearby St. John’s County Fish Pier to see if the water warmed up enough to catch some fish. It was only 53F and there were very few people on the pier. When the water is warm it’s hard to find a place along the long pier to cast out your line.
But it’s an aspect of photography, not fishing, that I want to discuss. As the title hints the type of photos I took on the pier were all shot “blind.” I do have a serious eye problem in my right eye (a hole in the macula), but that has nothing to do with the blind shooting I did on the pier.
I have to admit up front that I never understood why people would go out of their way to purposely use cameras that have built in defects when bought new so they can get unexpected results, e.g. Holga, Lomo. Perhaps, one of the reasons why the
f64 group started was to reject all kinds of tricks that were used to make artistic photographs that supposedly looked more like painting. One artistic technique was to smear some Vasoline, if invented then, on the lens.
f64 photographers abhorred tricks and strove for clear, sharp images.
In my case, I wasn’t trying to handicap myself , but the only camera I had with me on the pier was a Lumix DCM-LS75. It has a wonderful lens and everything works as designed, but it has no viewfinder. Outside on a sunny day, seeing anything on the screen is nearly impossible for me. AFAIK, no sun shield was designed for this model. All I can see when the sun is out is a very blurred image. Using my Red Sox cap’s bill to throw some shade on the monitor and with my good eye almost touching the glass, I see a hint of an image.
But the light was good, very few people were on the pier and just enough birds to offer lots of possibilities even with my cycloptic vision. So I steeled myself for a photo shoot. I pointed the camera in the direction that looked interesting and either used the zoom at max position of wide or tele, and fired away.
What is surprising is half these photos have not been cropped. Take a peek at blind digital shooting without a viewfinder. It sure surprised me.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lesged/sets/72157626078670632/Use
slideshow to avoid ads
Note: I do have two other digicams both with viewfinders: Pete Lutz’s former Oly Camedia C4000Z and Captain Slack's former Pentax K10D, but not with me at the pier.
