Do you have a strong preference for one of these?

[Mike Buckley]

Thanks again to everyone! The consensus is clear:

#1: 2 votes
#2: 13 votes
One undecided vote

It's apparently a good thing that I made the change to the second one, huh! The change is that I digitally moved my wife from the right side of the image to her present position at the bottom of the rainbow. I could never be a photojournalist.

[ajohnw]

I would go for the 2nd as well. I found the reasoning for the votes an interesting read. My feeling is that the real reason for 2 is the rendition of the water fall.

I think I would also have taken a shot with a focal length of around 50mm on aps (80mm on 35mm). I've never been keen on telephoto for shortening and find myself often trying to minimise it and not going further in the other direction than I need to either. Pass really as with some shots the reasoning doesn't always work out and perspective looks deeper that it should do.

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[Mike Buckley]

Interesting ideas, John!

I used an 85mm prime lens on a camera with a 1.5 crop factor for both images. There are several reasons that I chose that focal length. My next smallest focal length is 35mm (the point being that I don't own a 50mm lens. Pretty good reason not to use it, huh!). The 35mm lens would have required that I get too close to the subject. Doing so would have changed the perspective. Also, the mist from the waterfall would have gotten on the lens. Indeed, my wife returned from the scene asking for combat pay because her face was soaked. Though I was sympathetic, a simple "thank you" seemed more appropriate.

[ajohnw]

I'm resisting primes. Manufacturers have persuaded people to use zooms and apart from extreme ones many will take pixel peeking.

Take you point about wet gear. Much worse for me at the moment. I have had 2 rainy days out to see what my Pen does. No water proofing at all. The weather has been so bad in the UK this summer I had no choice really. Both days out were a treat for my wife. She did enjoy them though. Fortunately the shoulder bag I used was water proof unlike many camera bags and the gear is so much lighter. Pity about the camera really.

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