Alternative approaches in photography

Alternative approaches in photography - Zhouzhuang（周庄）, take two

There are all kinds of photographic subjects in the world and one normally chooses tools suitable for photographing particular themes. If your subject strictly imposes what equipment can be used (e.g. photographing birds - pun unintended but noticed) or if you have pre-visualized what exact effect you want to produce and can manipulate your subject as needed (e.g. studio photography), then you should choose format, cameras, lenses, etc. accordingly. In some cases, however, choosing unorthodox (relatively to your subject) equipment and/or even intentionally limiting your set of tools might greatly help to see things differently and result in better and/or unconventional outcome. I believe this to be true especially when working a subject as in travel photography when you visit the same place more than once.

Anyone going to Zhouzhuang（周庄）- also known as the "Venice of the Orient" - is advised to bring a super wide-angle lens. True enough - the streets and the channels are very narrow and one might find it very difficult to do without one. This is exactly what I thought when I went there for the first time in June 2004. At that time most of the photographs were taken with the wide-angle AF-S Zoom-Nikkor 17-35mm f/2.8D IF-ED lens and my telephoto zoom stayed in the bag most of the time. This time around, though, I decided to use a completely different approach and try shooting only with my telephoto lens (AF-S VR Zoom-Nikkor 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF), which, as far as this cramped place is concerned, is quite an unorthodox approach. Due to this methodology I very naturally concentrated on mainly photographing people and details - all kinds of details, from architecture to life-styles.

I find it fascinating how it is possible to intentionally put your mind into a certain perceptive mode depending on what tools you intend or have to use and then see the world as the tools dictate. Quite interestingly, this applies to pretty much any 'vs.' pair - film vs. digital, b&w vs. colour, prime vs. zoom and even wide-angle vs. telephoto lenses, etc. I also find it remarkable that being in a certain perceptive mode is absolutely tense-free - for instance, if I have resolved to only use a telephoto lens my mind does not seem to be aware of the fact that the world can also be seen from a wide-angle perspective while I work a subject using the lens. And my hand never reaches out to grab a wide-angle lens even if I do have one in my camera bag.

I shot four rolls of film (Fuji Provia 100F) in about four hours' time. Thinking about it now, on the average that is one shot every two minutes for four hours, which is not your regular leisurely session, wouldn't you say? As intended, only about 10 photographs were taken with the wide-angle lens. And the resulting gallery (below) presents a very different vision of the place.