These emails come with the intent of helping you be a better photographer. 

And if you want more photography stuff to read, there's a place on the interwebs where past emails I wrote are stored. You'll find 'em in the "Newsletter Hub." 

Remember, I'd like to know what you want to know about photography. So, If you have any questions, ask by sending an email to me at sam@samdamico.com. And for what it's worth. When you send me an email, unless someone's lookin' over my shoulder, I'm the only one that sees it.

Hello, .

Before I get into today's story, as a reminder, any focal length above 50mm is heading toward telephoto, and any focal length below 50mm is heading toward wide angle. That's all for the reminder, and now on to the story.  

The other day, while working with a student during a private lesson, watching the student work reminded me why I prefer working with wider focal length lenses.

The photographer was working with a medium telephoto lens, probably around 100mm, and it was a Zoom lens, so the focal length they used might have been longer than 100mm. 

Still, in any event, we were walking in the neighborhood, practicing making pictures, when they saw something that caught their attention. It was across the street, so they pointed the lens toward what they were seeing, and while they were making pictures, people and cars were moving between the object and the photographer.

It was frustrating, but that happens because of the long distance created by the long focal length between the photographer and what the photographer is photographing.

If the photographer used a shorter focal length lens and got closer to what they were photographing, it was less likely that things would be moving between the photographer and what they were photographing.

Another advantage of shorter focal lengths is that they force us closer to what interests us.

And in getting closer to what interests us, we begin to see details we couldn't see from a distance.  

And often, these details add another level of interest to what we're photographing.

Frequently, our proximity to what we photograph makes a picture more interesting from the viewer's and the photographer's perspectives.

To be clear, longer focal-length lenses are helpful; I'm not invalidating them.  

For example, if we photograph wild animals or a dangerous situation, we don't want to get close to them.

But in most cases, longer focal lengths work against us not only because we distance ourselves from what we could get close to but we need to consider the relationship between focal length, shutter speed, and camera blur caused by motion.

As Robert Capa said, "If your pictures aren't good enough, you're not close enough."

The next series of the Introduction to Photography class starts in February.

And there are other scheduled group classes below. 

Smaller classes mean better learning, so no more than five participants and me are in each class. 

But smaller classes also mean spots fill up quicker. 

And remember, we learn and improve by doing, so practice making at least one picture daily. 

That's all for now; thanks for reading! 
Sam

I'll help you be a better photographer—study and practice photography with me. 

And what if the timing doesn't work for you in any of my scheduled group classes? If that's the case, let's schedule a one-time lesson or a series of in-person or online private instruction that covers the same things as my group classes. 

Ways to work with me are listed below.