250 Words: Above Emerald Bay

The first thing I learned in photography is the need for a fine lens is to capture sharp images. You can be highly trained, have an excellent eye, know darkroom techniques (now Photshop and other software tools) but if there is a lot of stuff between what you see and the actual camera you will probably get a mediocre image. The best lenses are short and normal. The longer the lens, the more actual pieces of glass in the lens, the more compromised the image. You can have high mega-pixels, a tripod, no wind or movement, and capture a great image -- that cannot be enlarged without showing the flaws. For most, this isn't an issue.

Look at the image below. I used a Konica-Minolta Z-10, wide open at 25 seconds. Not a great lens but an okay camera. Now click on the image and look at it full screen. Use the BACK button to return.



The human eye is incredible, the simplest of machines, capable of seeing more detail than even the best camera with the finest normal lens. Sometimes the brain has to be trained to see. Sometimes people just need to look. Distractions are learned, also. While camping I noticed many people staring into a campfire, a pleasant distraction, but never bothered to look up.

Librarians, like Photographers, are trained to see, to look, to not allow the distractions of the pleasant to inhibit the grandeur of the whole.

Gerald F. Ward