Upon studying the last image further maybe having the top 20 odd % works. Ray I am an ecology type (forestry, prairie ecology and management, wildfire management etc) by trade and training - multiple degrees. The fundamental linkage between mankind and nature is a theme that I love. new topographics is - in a sense - all about that. Look at that last image the blandness of basically white structures and look at what we have relegated nature to. it is a great image and the top maybe adds to it hinting that maybe there are wildlands still out there.
The point is that this is the "level" at which I tend and I mean tend to judge everyone's photography. Why did you take the image? What are you trying to say? Your last image speaks volumes that maybe - no offense intended - you didn't realize.
Interesting perspective Ed, which is the primary reason I took the image - an interesting perspective! I don't want to take this too far OT, but I come at it from the perspective of an urban planner, my profession for about 30 years, now fading into the rear view mirror...
First off, no offense taken - I'm grateful you took the time to break it down and share your thoughts. From that perspective, though, I see it a bit differently. Yes, from
this visual perspective there is a "blandness of basically white structures" and token amounts of street trees and small parks that represent a token amount of nature (we could discuss the enormous parks elsewhere in the city as well). But I think the other shots I did of similar structures from the perspective of where they meet the street, of where they were designed to be seen FROM tell a very different story. There's obviously nothing bland about many of these structures when viewed from where they were designed to be viewed from. The combination of architectural elements, paint and color, AND trees and landscaping make this a very beautiful city with nature incorporated in a way that greatly enhances the built environment. Look at the photograph immediately before the one we're discussing and see the way the beautiful landscaping and curving stone stairs invite the eye (and the visitor) into this stately home. Seen from this perspective, from which it was designed to be seen and the perspective from which it is most often approached, it is anything BUT a bland white structure!
My perspective is that by making dense cities livable and visually varied and attractive, we can keep ourselves in more concentrated areas and thereby maintain more and greater natural areas and wild-lands outside of our cities to be used for it's various uses, agriculture, recreation, and, yes, pure wilderness. The better a job we do on our cities, the more wilderness we can ultimately keep wild in the face of growing population. I'd say that a green suburb of two acre forested lots with a nice single house nestled into each lot would look from the air (or a distant hill) like a much more natural and green environment and yet that type of sprawling development with it's dependence on energy intensive transportation is what makes it more difficult to maintain the farmland and wilderness areas we need to survive as a species, both physically and spiritually....
Anyway 11 days ago was my birthday and today I bought the 55-200. I look forward to using this lens as where I live I often "see" images but cannot zoom by foot either way enough to "lose" the bad edges. I've always wanted either 1) more megapixels for cropping or 2) a longer lens to "crop" the edges another way. I still want more than 16 mp in a Fuji but this lens helps. I hope they get to 21 -24 eventually. One thing for certain I have committed to Fuji and I think Aps-C to be the perfect compromise sensor.
I hope you enjoy the lens! I don't see telephoto shooting primarily as a way to avoid "zooming with my feel" - I don't really see any lenses in that sort of utilitarian sense. I see different focal lengths as providing different perspectives on what we see and how we depict what we see. A wider angle tends to show more context and environment in addition to the primary topic of the shot. To me, a telephoto is all about compressed distance and space and a very different perspective than we tend to see with the naked eye (as is an ultra-wide angle lens). That's what drew you to comment on this shot in the first place, no? Not the convenience of me being able to shoot this street/hill without walking to it, but the odd perspective created by the reach of the lens. As noted, I'm not much of a tele shooter personally, but I like having one in my bag...
I too see APS and m43 (nearly indistinguishable from an IQ standpoint) as a pretty great sweet spot between sensor quality and body/lens size. But others have other perspectives and I've tried pretty much everything, so I use what I like but don't see of the other options as a worse choice - just a worse choice for me....
Have a good one,
-Ray
