Hear Hear!!

Today's budding photographers can perhaps be forgiven for thinking that auto focus, auto exposure and all the other auto features have been around since the days we lived in caves. So it's only natural that they have a hard time relating to a manual lens.

Back in the seventies my right hand controlled the shutter and the shutter speed dial. My left hand supported the lens, adjusted zoom, adjusted focus and adjusted aperture. My eye, looking into the view finder instead of on an LCD, worried about the light meter built in to show you the exposure and of course my eye also composed.

All of those activities had to be completed to take a picture. Surprisingly it was still possible to photograph sports, macro and all kinds of other challenging subjects. It was just a matter of practice and more practice until the hands and the fingers are all coordinated. I used to take pictures as quickly then as I do now. It simply demanded more hand eye coordination.

When I got my first manual lens for my DSLR I struggled to use it. How soon we forget. Then I was reminded of what I used to do in my film days and with some practice it all came back again.

Ignore those people who poo poo manual photography. They are the ones we should be feeling sorry for since they have a long way to go to finally master the art of photography.