There's been a lot of good advice here. I'd just add one consideration.


I'm all about being discrete, and the attention grabbed by shooting with my 70-200 can be a hinderence if you want candids. HOWEVER, the "serious business" look of it provides some serious credibility. You can get strangers to pose for you lickity-split. I've been able to finagle photo passes at events on two separate occasions with a little fast-talk and a this lens on my hip (both of which required either press affiliation or pre-application). You hold this thing over your head at a show, and the crow parts with greater ease-- they assume you're up to something important, maybe even official. Heck, I once got stopped after shooting photos of a abandoned-condemned power plant: I have dyed hair and some facial piercings, but seeing the camera, I swear, put security off their guard-- artists are just not threatening.





You could claim that the effect is psychological, and you really might be right. But I'm inclined to say it has an implicit meaning that changes the way people react to a camera. It's an engrained symbol artist-status, the way somebody solving a rubix cube implies to observers that they must be very clever.