I had just uploaded some pictures from it to my computer and had yet to put it away. Just a side note and a bit of advice to newer photographers, ALWAYS PUT YOUR CAMERA AWAY when not using it! In the years that I spent working in camera shops I saw just as many cameras damaged by household knocks, drops and spills as cameras that were damaged in the great outdoors. The same camera bag that protects it out in the field will protect it at home!
Anyway, I got to thinking about the camera and how it can affect one's thinking about photography. I know, I know. there are endless articles and videos in the photographic community that tell you that, to a great degree, the camera doesn't matter. And it's true. A good photographer should be able to make great images with just about any camera. Ultimately it's the photograph that counts. To that end, this could just about be the least important photography piece that I will ever write.
When I was working in various camera shops back in the dinosaur days of film, I attended several sales seminars and workshops. In one of those seminars I remember the presenter posing the question, "As a salesperson, is it important for the customer to like you?" His answer, "Only if you want to sell them something." Let's take that concept and apply it to functional photography. "Is it important to like the camera that you're using?" My answer; "Only if you want to take pictures with it."
As stated in a previous post in this blog, my other very handsome camera, a Fuji X100F, garners a fair bit of attention when I'm out and about with it. http://refractivereasoning.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-silver-camera.html
One of the comments I often hear is something like "I have a really good camera at home but I just couldn't find the time to learn to use it properly." Or, "I have a really good camera at home, but it's too big to carry around. I just use my cellphone."
I don't want to appear to be bashing the huge cellphone community here. I'm all for making great images with whatever technology you have in hand. I'll support you even if you're chipping out pictures on a cave wall with a rock!
But for a true photohound there is something about using a cool camera. A real camera. Something with great design and full manual controls. There is a romance to it. Think Henri Cartier-Bresson haunting the streets of Paris with his beloved Leica. Robert Capa covering the Spanish Civil War or Vivian Maier making her incredible images on the streets of Chicago and New York with her trusty Rolleiflex. Using a really nice camera makes a statement. It says that the images I make are a little more important to me than an Instagram post that will be forgotten in twenty four hours. It says that I want a be in control of the images I make. I'm not just taking snapshots, I want to make photographs .
Maybe I'll walk back what I said earlier about this being the least important photography piece I'll ever write. Maybe it's the most important one. I mean if just the look of the photographic tools in my arsenal can inspire me to go out and use them, I'm way ahead of all those who have "good cameras " and leave them at home. In my experience, half the battle of being a photographer is just getting out with a camera. And as the old saying goes, "The best camera is the one you have with you."
That being said, I think that I will grab one of my very cool little cameras and go for a walkabout. Somewhere out there are pictures that need taking!
...more later
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