Monday, March 22, 2010

Rediscovering an Old Love Affair


BB2web
Originally uploaded by lisablaschke
Okay, I know what you're thinking. Looking at that title and then seeing the picture I chose to share today, you're thinking something morbid about some past love who's buried in my basement. Don't notify the authorities just yet! The past love to which I am referring is not the guy in the picture, it is in fact the Nifty Fifty -- 50mm F1.8 lens that I am shooting the guy with. This guy is in fact a long dead explorer found under the remains of sunken ship and now on display at the Bob Bullock museum in Austin. (He's actually got a non-fatal crushed skull, a broken nose, and an abscessed tooth and was found with a pint of brandy and one shoe so my guess is he wasn't much of a looker before he died).*** My old love was able to capture this guy in such amazing detail in very low light conditions without the use of a flash because it's just that awesome a lens.

I used to use the Nifty Fifty (as it's known in the crowd I run with) all the time back in the film days. I knew what it was capable of and I always knew the kind of results I was getting during a time when you couldn't check the back of your screen to see how you're doing. I got away from it with the purchase of my wonderful Tamron 28-75 F2.8 and then fell even further away from it with the purchase of my newest love, the Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS that I know you've all heard be talk about. Getting spoiled by the ease of my zoom lenses, makes one forget how wonderful the image quality in an old reliable prime lens can be. I know it's laziness on my part. With the zooms I can stand where I want to stand and zoom in and out. With the primes I have to pick my rear up and move to compose the image I want, but the results are so worth it.

Now, here's the part where I thought I'd go into a little tirade about the fact that moments after I shot this I was so rudely informed that photography is not allowed in the Bob Bullock museum. I thought I'd give my little speech about how the lack of a flash is not in any way harming the exhibits and that this is America land of the free yada yada yada but I decided to not go there. Instead I just opted to not purchase the souvenir spoon that I usually collect on all my museum tours. I'll keep that extra $5.95 thank you very much.

***special thanks to France for the loan of this exhibit to the museum.

2 comments:

  1. The reason there is a no photography policy in the Bullock Texas History Museum is not because of light levels. It is in fact because the Bullock Museum is non collecting. All the artifacts are on loan from various owners. Each artifact has it's own pages and pages of legal documents explaining how it needs to be credited to its owner should it ever be photographed and published on marketing materials or on social networking sites such as this.
    It's not a matter of protecting the artifact, it's about crediting the owner. Which for this replica of a skeleton from La Belle, is the country of France.

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  2. There you have it! The reason for the no photography rule! One that in my opinion, should be posted for all to see on the museum's website. Thank you anonymous for sharing that with me and thank you France for the loan of this exhibit.

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