p.1 #1 · 90's street shoot with a manual focus (!) 2.8 300mm
Coming from a dance photography background, I pride myself of, due to years of training, having a pretty highly developed hand/eye reflex
That contributed to, when possible, always trying to capture the feeling of movement of dance in my fashion photography.
Unfortunately, back in the pre AF film shooting days, that also, despite my experience of shooting fast moving subjects using manual facus, only too boiled down to demanding more from my equipment that was possible.
The coming of AF seemed a welcome solution, but the sophistication of the then available bodies like the F801 and F90 (and F4) were only a faint shadow of what nowadays is possible.
While the top of the line AF lenses, even the early the 2.8/300 AF, were priced well out of what I at that time, as I was spending most of my budget on trips to Paris, Milan and New York, could afford
Still I loved the look of a wide open 2.8 300mm, and couldn't resist getting a Russian Tpir 2.8 300, despite it being, was manual focus, I found for less then 20% of the MRSP price of its Nikon counterpart, even if it wasn't as sharp and contrasty as the Nikon
Using it wide open while walking and simultaneously manually focusing on a moving subject made things extra interesting (although my 2nd generation 2.8/80-200 AF D despite the AF also struggled when used under those conditions)
But while scanning my old negatives I found these images I shot in the early 90's https://a4.pbase.com/g12/20/670620/3/170407909.UzJC5YkL.jpg
