Slow down, you move too fast

If I’ve learned one thing since I got serious about photography, it’s that I need to slow down, and digital cameras do nothing to help. Focus, ISO, shutter speed, white balance: all automatic. Some pro cameras will allow you to shoot 13 frames per second, and even at the low end you can get 3. I know there are times, like at running events or dogs, when these features are helpful, but my preference these days is to slow it down. This too can be dangerous, as when I’m driving in Phoenix around sundown and the light’s just perfect, the buildings aglow, even the heat waves shimmer. I might as well be texting.

Two pieces of equipment and an oft-repeated technique force me to do this safely when I’m not driving: a manual focus lens, a tripod, and moving my feet. Last week I spent about an hour in front of an agave, sitting still, standing, changing angles —- front, side, head-on, above, a little below —- my camera mounted on a tripod and equipped with a Petzval 85mm lens. Everything about this lens takes your complete attention. A small knob focuses the lens, and to change the aperture you must remove and replace metal plates, each drilled with a different hole from wide open to pinpoint. The focus field is centered and ridiculously small, so focusing can be, as one critic has said, infuriating. I find it both challenging and calming and ultimately satisfying.

Each frame I shot took about a minute, and each shot allowed me to see what I might not have otherwise; shadows, light, the curve of the plant’s fleshy leaves (That’s what they’re called, thank you Google), the gentle crossing of one leaf over another, color variations, drought scars, beads of moisture, even the shadows of those beads. Many of the frames ended up total failures, but others, like this, left me feelin’ groovy.