Default setting

Default setting

Sunday is often a comfortable, stay-at-home sort of a day. Depending on the season, a comfy chair in front of the TV, or a comfortable seat in the garden. It’s a comfort zone. So let’s talk about our photographic comfort zones, before it’s Monday, and we have to start thinking hard again.

It can be a matter of genre: some people are at home with wildlife pictures, creeping about in camouflage waterproofs with a 600mm lens in one pocket and a Jessops collapsible hide in the other. Put them in front of a street scene, and they’ll be looking for a bush to hide in while they observe these strange creatures called ‘office workers’ (currently on the endangered list). Or a studio worker who wants a portable flash outfit (with modelling lamps and ironed cloth backdrop) for those flower shots.

Maybe it’s a camera, for you. You know that you will get sharper pictures from your DSLR, but you are really rather addicted to the fixed-lens compact that you bought for a few snaps around the place, and last time you had a holiday, you muttered to yourself about baggage allowances and just packed it, leaving the gadget bag and all its bounty in the cupboard for two weeks. And you never enjoyed a holiday so much!

Of course, it might be a lens that really floats your boat, and it’s this that is probably my own biggest weakness. Over the last few months, I’ve sometimes used an old Nikon with an 18-105mm lens on the front, and I’ve treasured the versatility, and I’ve taken shots I probably wouldn’t have tried with my usual camera. But… Even on a sunny day, I feel lost without the differential focus that an 85mm wide-aperture lens offers. I bought my first 85mm lens in 1976, and I still have it and love it for film pictures: but day-to-day it’s a Sony f/1.8 that heads through the door on the front of my Alpha 7.

Let’s have a comfy day, telling warm tales of what we do that makes us happy with little effort. I’ll have tea with milk and sugar. Now, isn’t that nice?