1834 - Still Learning How To Crawl

Thanks for all those congratulations and best wishes. Flo asked if I had time to stop and think, and what I’ve learned. Well, there’s not much time at the moment for anything, but I guess I’m still learning. Maybe one of the most interesting experiences was to let go of my DSLR and switch almost completely to a high-end compact, the Panasonic DMC-LX5. Yeah, really, it’s not the camera 🙂

Or in a way it is, or while the particular camera is not important, at least the class of camera greatly influences what images you make. Small-sensor cameras intrinsically have much more depth of field than DSLRs. Shallow DOF is impossible to achieve unless you come very close to your subject. Fortunately most better small-sensor cameras have a macro mode that allows you to focus very close, thus giving you an opportunity to achieve shallow DOF, albeit at the price of perspective distortions. If you are like me, you embrace that.

That’s all I’ve learned? No, of course not, I’m always learning and I’m still learning how to crawl, but it’s way, way past midnight and I have to stop now. We’ll certainly come back to the topic though.

“Still Learning How To Crawl” from Daniel Lanois’ 1993 album “For The Beauty Of Wynona” is the Song of the Day. Hear it on YouTube. The album cover shows a photo by Czech photographer Jan Saudek. It depicts nudity, and thus it was censored in God’s Own Country. The same happened to the Saudek cover of “Welcome to the Beautiful South”, and in that case it didn’t even need nudity. Land of the Free? Sure, for some definition of freedom.

Oh, and if you don’t fear nudity and can digest some pictures ranking among the best ever made, here is the homepage of Jan Saudek and Sára Saudková.