[SEL] Tulare Pictures

[Rob Skinner]

>  Why accept mediocrity? That is not a recommendation 
> I would like to live with.

You're right, Peter.  It's always possible to get up before dawn, set up your
camera, move all the clutter from someone's display, take down the ropes, put up
new ropes to keep people away, and then wait for the perfect light, and then
take as many pictures as possible, using as many combinations of apertures,
shutter speeds and focus as possible -- all before the light changes.  I suppose
if you want to take it a step further, you could set up another camera or two
with different film, just to give you more flexibility.

Or you can use the Richard Backus technique.  He wanders over to an engine
owner, smiles, then says, "Y'know, it would be really nice if you were to drag
your engine a quarter mile over to the north.  I would like to see it to the
left of that tree, in a north-south orientation, and I would like it there
between 4:50 p.m. and 5:05 p.m."  Then people scramble like crazed,
pyramid-building Egyptians to move the engine to the exact spot requested.  The
technique seems to work. 

Unfortunately, I'm too lazy to get up before the crack of dawn and I'm not
charismatic enough to get people to move iron around at my whims.  Therefore,
I'm doomed to produce images of mediocre quality.  Such is my fate, and I've
learned to accept it.  

Rob