I rarely respond to solicitations through mass-mailings. I dislike junk mail and I try not to open or read any of it. Junk mail, junk TV, junk food – I’ve been down that road and I want no more of it.
Maybe it’s the age. On the other side of fifty you look to clean up your mailbox, so to speak.
But the solicitation from the Nature Conservancy is a little different. For one thing, they send those stickers with my address. I use them. I like to flaunt their symbol on mail to gas companies, cable companies and all other possible big-time exploiters of the natural world (and I do not regard myself as a clean green by any means, so there’s guilt there as well). And, were I to throw the stickers away, then a tree would have been plucked in vain.
With all this complicated stuff going through my head, I was actually pleased to move into an apartment nicely situated just across the railroad tracks from the Madison branch of the Nature Conservancy. Today I went in to pay my dues.
You know those great stickers you send me each year? I’ve come to pay up. So long as I have mounting credit card debt, let me add your good cause to the bundle.
Puzzled look. Huh?
Those stickers? You know, with my name, address and your pretty green leaf, alternating with butterflies, on them?
Sorry, not ours. Must be some national mass mailing from the membership drive folks over... wherever it is that they are situated. We don’t do that sort of stuff.
That’s too bad. I live across the railroad tracks. I would like to support your cause and purchase great quantities of those stickers and give you good money for them. But I would like to do it locally. Didn’t I hear that the big Nature Conservancy dudes had some trouble with an IRS audit just a few years back? I want to see my money do its work here in Wisconsin, so that the trails expand and butterflies settle on prairie flowers all summer long.
Sorry, call the national guys – here’s their number...
Maybe I’ll put in some labor hours instead, you know, for the trails and the butterflies.
Outside, the sun is out for the first time this month, it seems. The Nature Conservancy hasn’t a splendid garden outside, but it has a patch of goldenrod, in bloom and radiant in the bright light of the early afternoon. I had my lesser guy with me, the Sony H5, and I asked him to snap up a shot of the bloom outside, as a tribute to the set of stickers I receive each holiday season.
Wow... that's so 3-D. It looks like a ViewMaster slide.
ReplyDeleteNina!
ReplyDeleteLili
it seems like you are still having a difficult time deciding between your two cameras.
ReplyDeleteI understand.
I can offer informed advice because after earning my MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design 36 years ago I have made a very good living as a painter and fine art photographer. I also advise commercial photographers who have burned-out and help them rediscover the reason they become a photographer--the joy of creativity. Over the years a lot of cameras have passed through my hands.
First of all, you DESERVE good tools. Nina, your photographs and your commentary are wonderful. Don't change a thing in your approach to your blog. It is a joy to read and see. You have a real talent for photography and obviously love making photos to share with us.
Now, back to your dilemma. You are in love with two fantastic cameras. As you can see, with all digital cameras money equals picture quality. This is because the extra cost goes into the camera's sensor, metering and processing software, and lens. I said "picture quality"--not 'better photographs' because a photo can be tack sharp, perfectly exposed, vividly colored and still be a lousy photograph. You can take a great photograph with a cell phone; you just can't print it any larger than a postage stamp. My best picture quality comes from my 39 megapixel Phase One p45 digital camera back ($32,000) on a Hasselblad 503CW medium format SLR ($4500) but the camera I carry with me all the time is a 9 megapixel Fuji FinePix E900 ($300) which I've used to make beautiful fine art photos. Yes, I can see the difference in picture quality between these two extremely different cameras, but I can make great photographs with either camera. (My middle camera is a12 megapixel Fuji FinePix S3 Pro SLR.)
The best photos happen in that area between your ears before you pick up any camera.
As you begin to visualize the photograph you want to make, you will find yourself selecting the tool most suitable to the task. Use the camera you feel most comfortable with and gives you the most confidence.
So, my advice is: if you can afford to, keep them both and use them appropriately. In any case I know you will continue to make beautiful and compelling photos.
One more piece of advice: if your photographs aren't sharp the rest doesn't matter. Use a tripod whenever you can.
all: thanks for the patience and support! dan de -- very very sage advice. I spent the day using the two cameras and there is no question -- I need them both. So it goes. And your pricetags make mine feel like the crumbs in a bakeshop.
ReplyDelete