I like to know where the camera is.
If you know the shape of the lens and the image you get, you can work out the path that light followed between the object and your eye.
I love the luxury of the camera. The camera does so much for you. I like the secrets a camera can tell.
The things that are close to you are the things you can photograph the best.
The lens is a tyranny.
A small lens gives you a very specific look. You don't have a shallow depth of field.
When a regular camera focuses physically, what the regular camera is doing is adjusting the lens relative to the sensor to bring different parts of the scene into focus.
I shoot with a Canon 5D Mark III.
I think the 50mm lens is an extremely good discipline lens; it requires you to see in a more refined way, not just tighter.
If I have to point to something specific with the way I move my camera, I love to do it with a wide lens. I like to show you as much of the space as I can, even if I'm following a character.
I was 24 years old at the time. I had no real notion of what photography was about. I had no training. By accident, I put a negative in an enlarger, and you can do many things with that negative.
The mirror is the tool of the one who wants to do a self-portrait. And if you want to make a photo you need a mirror.
Basically, with a regular camera, you have to take time or allow the camera to focus before you take the shot.
If you look at classic Hollywood films, they tend to shoot close-ups on quite long lenses and the background it out of focus. You know, it's just a mush.
For low light, all the light rays participate. We're using all the light coming through a large aperture to make a picture with a large depth of field - totally impossible with a conventional camera.
I always wanted to know what lens they were on, how close they were. I didn't do it with a plan in mind, but I would instinctively gear what I was doing toward what lenses they were using.
And then as I frequently do, some times I'll peek out from underneath the focusing cloth and just look around the edges of the frame that I'm not seeing, see if there's something that should be adjusted in terms of changing the camera position.
With the most powerful binoculars, I cannot see Alaska.
Because I come from that old-school optics environment, I know stuff about depth of field and camera movement and things that are not necessarily a part of the curriculum for people who started on a box and have never done anything that wasn't on a box.
My lens of choice was always the 35 mm. It was more environmental. You can't come in closer with the 35 mm.
I always liked photography in film - I studied photography growing up. I like the medium of film; I like physically holding 35-mm film. I like the way it looks, the quality when it's projected. I like the way it frames real life.
If everyone worked with wide-angle lenses, I'd shoot all my films in 75mm, because I believe very strongly in the possibilities of the 75mm.
That's one of the best things about the RED ONE - I can use all the best lenses that have been used in film forever.
I think the recent cluster of WWII novels is so good because we have reached an optimal distance from the war. Just as a lens has its focal length, the novel also has its best distance from the action.
3D prefers you to use wider lenses because when things are out of focus, and yet it's in 3D, it bothers you.
