Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1997/05/31

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Subject: Re: Multiple bodies
From: ted grant <75501.3002@CompuServe.COM>
Date: 31 May 97 10:21:53 EDT

Jeff wrote:

<<As an enthusiastic hobbyist, I find hauling too much gear to be more of a bane
than a boon>>>

<<<You see, I am fairly adaptable in my technique,>>>>>>>>

<<<These opinions are shaped by the fact that I am often carrying my gear for
hours at a time, through downtown crowds and up mountainsides. If I had an
assistant, or a nearby car (and thus, more sedentary technique) I might do
things differently.>>>>>>>>>

g'day Jeff,

Having been an "enthusiastic hobbyist" as most pro's start out like yourself, I
thought I might add a bit of a perspective to round out the gear discussion .

Even for us, more gear at times is just as much of a "bane as a boon". I might
add a big pain in the neck and ass. :)  However we are paid to come back with
the best there is and not having the right lens and coming back with, 

<<<<<<" something satisfying, though maybe not exactly the same
composition.">>>>>    just doesn't cut it with the folks who pay the dollars.
Sure sometimes that's life and we do have to come back with something
"satisfying" but if you do that too often and not have the zinger material
expected of you, you do not go again.

<<<<<You see, I am fairly adaptable in my technique,>>

And that's a bonus for all of us, amature and pro, because if a photographer
can't adapt quickly the moment is lost forever. As in my case at the Barcelona
Summer Olympics in the swimming mens back stroke final.

Canadian swimmer Mark Tewksbury was the favourite to win Gold and just before
the race started the "only Leica R7 I took with me instead of the usual 3 with
other lenses attached", was knocked to the floor and jammed. Those things happen
in the crush of covering the olympics. Now I'm dead in the water so's to speak
:) 

However I had a Canon EOS 1, but only with a short lens as I was using it for
"happy snaps" and not for real work.

I had to " adapt" quickly and change my technique much like you.  so I worked my
way through the photo position of about 200 photographers looking for someone to
loan me a 300mm Canon lens they weren't using, as the correct lens for swimming
was a 400mm and everyone was using theirs. A 3 barely worked as Tewks was in a
nearside lane to me.

Got one, nothing like having friends in a crowd! :) and sure enough the Canadian
won Gold and I got my "ass saving" pictures by quickly adapting. But my 400 2.8
Leica would have made a tighter and better picture. And it is little things like
this that makes you carry everything you own.  "bane or boon" :)

And the client? Well I let them make their complimentary remarks before I told
them how close it was that I didn't get a picture. And after that little
incident I carried all my gear to every event. And for someone who has covered
every summer -- winter Olympics since '68 you'd think I would have known better
than to have taken only "one camera body of the main working gear." :)

<<<If I had an assistant, or a nearby car (and thus, more sedentary technique) I
might do things differently.>>>>>>>

<<<<<I am often carrying my gear for hours at a time, through downtown
crowds>>>>>

It may sound like pros always have an assistant, we don't. Thought you might
like to know what I carried daily for the summer games and through the crowds
and on the media buses and wherever I had to go.:

3 R7's with motors, 28mm, 100, in pockets of photovest, 180 attached to an R7,
280 attached and a 400 2.8 on a monopod and attached to R7. Also a 1.4, 2X
extenders in the pocket and at least 30 rolls of film. And that is in the push
and shove of a really big "crowded photo position".:)  

However we still manage a few good snaps and the odd cold beer. :)

ted
Victoria, Canada
http://www.islandnet.com/~tedgrant