What subjects do we NOT shoot (and why)?

[Roger_235]

I've shot Civil War Reenactments in 35mm and 8x10. 35mm first so I could get an idea of where the best location was for the calvary, plus shots taken at 5 frames/second to capture some of the faster action. I then came back the following year hauling the 8x10 Wisner. Everyone was asking me if it was a civil war period camera. They mistook me as a player in the reenactment. I used 8x10 Astia film to take in the whole scope of a battle, showing action with 1second exposures. Only problem I had was my tripod was up against a rope fence and kids in the viewing audience were moving the rope, causing some of my pictures to get blurred. Their parent would ask them to stop, but 5 minutes later I would see hands reaching over to brace themselves with one hand on my tripod and the other hand on the rope along with their foot on the lower rung rope. And, the reenactors changed the battle plan somewhat and didn't have the calvary clash where I expected it. At any rate, I still got some interesting shots.

I've also used medium format which allows more mobility and is a compromise between 35mm and 4x5, with trade-offs that have been well documented at www.photo.net discussion groups.

This year I plan on using LF again for the next reenactment. May try 5x7 black and white with 150mm lens this time.

[David A. Goldfarb]

I'm with Steve, above, on birds. Hard enough to do it well with 35mm. Occasionally I try with 6x6, but the lenses that would make it feasable to get something close to a full-frame image of anything other than a large, relatively stationary wader, just don't exist and would be too expensive and cumbersome if they did. This 6x6 shot is okay, but I'm fairly sure I could have done it better in 35mm:

http://www.photo.net/photodb/photo?photo_id=599019

The film area there is bigger than 35mm, but not close to full frame.

Older photographs of birds made with LF equipment just required vastly more work to get a usable image, and the images aren't necessarily better than modern images made with 35mm equipment.

[Jonathan Brewer]

I won't shoot human misery, suffering, despair,....there's gotta be something the shot that gives the subject some dignity.

I won't shoot something if it isn't somehow uplifting to whoever sees the image. I've shot people down on their luck, but there was some gesture, something that said there was at least the smallest bit of 'hope';, I've also given them a couple of bucks for a burger as a gesture, and certainly they could've gotten some wine with what I gave them, but at least that I way I was giving back as well as taking.