Dear Friends, I have just checked the archives, cleaned the cat hair out of the keyboard, and am prepared to start annoying people. I spent my weekend at a Medieval Fayre in a town that grows mud for export. The physics of a long wool garment and capillary action ensured that I was able to bring a good deal of that mud home. But I also brought home the memory of some truly appalling camera work. Not mine, I hasten to add. I learned a long time ago to hang onto an Enfield or a Graflex with both hands and my arms held firmly into my body. I learned to use the power of opposing muscle groups to steady myself - I still use this in my profession but use smaller holds and rests. I applauded the Canon people for the use of rubber forehead pads on some of their high-end Super 8 cameras - and I remember that Eumig did the same. They obviously recognised that the frontal bone of the forehead was the place to push against to steady a movie camera. I do the same with the three points hold - eyepiece of the Hasselblad prism, flash bracket, and focus ring. I get away with 1/60 even in the Medieval battles, though the sword strokes are distorted. But look at the others using P/S digitals and camcorders.... The vast majority had their cameras out at arm's length like Leica O's but with a sort of 3 finger grip. The camcorders used one hand and used the other to continuously tilt screens. Tripods were non-existent. I can only speculate as to the results, particularly as combat photography does not permit time lag. Perhaps it's be a kindness to realise that most of the exposures made will be wiped or forgotten. Moral of this posting? Brace, hold your breath - a max of 4 seconds, squeeze the shutter release, don't jerk it, and don't wear long wool robes in Balingup! Uncle Dick No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.5.484 / Virus Database: 269.12.9/975 - Release Date: 26/08/2007 9:34 PM ============================================================================================================= To unsubscribe from this list, go to www.freelists.org and logon to your account (the same e-mail address and password you set-up when you subscribed,) and unsubscribe from there.