Long lenses

When I first saw this photo, I thought I was seeing a submarine conning tower rising from some fog. I was right about the fog, but it’s a television tower, not a submarine. The scene, captured by Associated Press (AP) photographer Michael Probst, is illustrative of the images you’ll find in AP’s “Long lens photography: Far and near,” a subsection of “The Shot” which is itself a subsection of AP’s images spotlight blog. Simply put, there’s a lot to see here.

I was looking for the AP stylebook and eventually wandered into this trove of long lens photography. Sure, after you’ve been through a dozen ooo’s and ahhh’s, the impact begins to wear off. At that point you best stop looking for a while and return later. But you know it’s there — all that eye candy gathered from around the world by a preeminent worldwide news organization. And you’ll go back for more, like this:

Or this:

The collection includes notes about location, camera, lens, aperture, and shutter speed — if you’re into that. Personally, I just enjoy the results. It’s been several decades since I owned a nice SLR camera with a long lens, but I continue to enjoy the work of others.

It occurs to me that we’re nearing the end of the year when news organizations start posting their “year in pictures” collections that I inevitably mention. I don’t know if these extensive AP collections are part of that or if they are here year ’round. But no matter. They’re here now. Enjoy.