Art Map Burlington, October 2007

ART BOOK

On the Trail
of the Elusive Blind
Vampire Photographer

In addition to the meaningless upgrades, and articles about long dead and dusty photographic icons, we can also add to the official list of distractions some actual technological developments that, in their best light represent good intentions run amok, but at worst indicate yet another instance of greed-driven innovation. Photographers and companies alike can too easily find themselves mired in the realm of “Uh, do we really need this?”

Take auto-focus, for instance. Above the anguished howls of protest we can already hear emanating from the peanut gallery, we’d like to remind everyone what a recent phenomenon auto-focus actually is. Out of over 180 years of photographic history, auto-focus has been part of the picture for less than one-fifth that time. Don’t tell us nothing before 1977 was reliably sharp because we’d be forced to point out that your pants were on fire.

The funny thing is, like a lot of supposed technological “advances,” auto-focus does not represent a legitimate step forward for our medium, but rather- we would argue- a backward one. We know you too have cringed more than once to discover that your auto-focus picked the “wrong” element in your composition to render razor sharp- say, an unremarkable background Port-o-Potty- while blithely ignoring the three-horned moose in the foreground doing the Macarena that you were, in fact, trying to capture for posterity, and perhaps the National Enquirer.

Are we really all so hopeless, bumbling Jerry Lewis-style through the landscape, unable to turn a simple focus ring on a desired subject? Since when, we might ask, are photographers blind?

No doubt, there are good, legitimate uses for auto-focus. But unless you have a documented eye condition, or specialize in photographing hummingbirds playing floor hockey, we’re not buying the argument that you need this feature, and you shouldn’t either. Using the manual focus option is quieter, won’t zap up your batteries, and, very likely will give you more reliable, successful results. Try an experiment- turn off your auto-focus for a day. Instead of letting the digital camera determine what the exact point-of-focus of your image is, you decide. You may just decide that you’re not so blind after all.

Excerpt from The Figital Revolution (2007) by Stephen M. Schaub and Eve Ogden Schaub. Learn more at www.figitalrevolution.com.

Art Map Burlington ARTICLE
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		ART BOOK On the Trail of the Elusive Blind Vampire Photographer In addition to the meaningless upgrades, and articles about long dead and dusty photographic icons, we can also add to the official list of distractions some actual technological developments that, in their best light represent good intentions run amok, but at worst indicate yet another instance of greed-driven innovation. Photographers and companies alike can too easily find themselves mired in the realm of “Uh, do we really need this?” Take auto-focus, for instance. Above the anguished howls of protest we can already hear emanating from the peanut gallery, we’d like to remind everyone what a recent phenomenon auto-focus actually is. Out of over 180 years of photographic history, auto-focus has been part of the picture for less than one-fifth that time. Don’t tell us nothing before 1977 was reliably sharp because we’d be forced to point out that your pants were on fire. The funny thing is, like a lot of supposed technological “advances,” auto-focus does not represent a legitimate step forward for our medium, but rather- we would argue- a backward one. We know you too have cringed more than once to discover that your auto-focus picked the “wrong” element in your composition to render razor sharp- say, an unremarkable background Port-o-Potty- while blithely ignoring the three-horned moose in the foreground doing the Macarena that you were, in fact, trying to capture for posterity, and perhaps the National Enquirer. Are we really all so hopeless, bumbling Jerry Lewis-style through the landscape, unable to turn a simple focus ring on a desired subject? Since when, we might ask, are photographers blind? No doubt, there are good, legitimate uses for auto-focus. But unless you have a documented eye condition, or specialize in photographing hummingbirds playing floor hockey, we’re not buying the argument that you need this feature, and you shouldn’t either. Using the manual focus option is quieter, won’t zap up your batteries, and, very likely will give you more reliable, successful results. Try an experiment- turn off your auto-focus for a day. Instead of letting the digital camera determine what the exact point-of-focus of your image is, you decide. You may just decide that you’re not so blind after all. Excerpt from The Figital Revolution (2007) by Stephen M. Schaub and Eve Ogden Schaub. Learn more at www.figitalrevolution.com.
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