Zoomer Boomer

Posted by Glyn Wade

A few weeks ago some of us at the club did short segments on our favourite piece of photography equipment and I thought I’d revisit my segment here.

My favourite piece of equipment is my Sigma 70-300mm lens which my wife calls my zoomer boomer. It cost a mere £89 second hand so is not exactly top of the range but it suits me fine. Claire had a brand new one bought for her by her wonderful husband from ebay ( an expensive camera shop if she asks) and it didn’t cost much more and came with a lens hood too (if she asks though it cost almost £500!).

Of course it is useful for zooming in on subjects I can’t….or shouldn’t….get close to. As much as I love lions and tigers etc I think it would be safer to have some distance, or a fence, between us.

I also love to get in close on subjects and show as much detail as possible. Where most would be stepping back to get the whole of a donkey for example my whole viewfinder is taken up by one eye. As a crowd watch a jousting contest my lens would be focused on the point of the lance probing into the loser’s sternum or showing a facial grimace as shown here:

Why? Personal choice I suppose. And because I can! Photography is subjective and rules are meant to be broken….so I try to…..
I can spend whole days using only this lens. Days such as the event days at Tutbury Castle where I can zoom in on sometimes unsuspecting subjects giving candid rather than posed shots. With my zoomer boomer I don’t have to be on top of my subjects so I can get away with snapping them surreptitiously although the first guy below is definitely posing!