on 28mm-ish
84 year old arthritic student: you can borrow this.
me: seriously? wow, thanks,....
( lovingly craddles 16-35mm canon glass like it was my first born )
84 year old arthritic student: i'm not giving it to you,... but you can borrow it,... until i die.
me: .... umm,.. ok,... thanks,... i think,....
------------------------------------------------------------------------
the 50, the 85,.... yeah they're lovely.
they're lovely in a " stand back from the painting and admire it through the glass and in between everyone's waving cellphones" kind of lovely.
but I rarely get the feeling of "i remember that" when i look back through the pictures.
the conversations may have been intimate,... but I was physically far, sometimes right across the room, which to be honest though, is never really that far here in cramped Japan.
but still,... it was "away".
then a student lent me her wide angle zoom and I fell in love.
this was on the 50mm f4 pentax 67,.... which roughly equates to 28mm on 35mm.
this is how i remember the moment looking,... how i remember her looking,.... and how i remember it feeling.
the 50 and the 85,... when you get close, they compress the hell out of the person,... so an ever so slightly rounded face becomes a beach ball,.... and a well inflated one at that.
and there's still that little bit of distance.
the 28 though,... there's no hiding,... no hiding behind the safety bubble that is minimum focus distance.
for either of you.
you're there,... that close,... and you've both got to be ok with that.