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Monday, April 22, 2013
Woow great work, you must have a good camera?
Hello everyone,
Many photographers experienced those moments when people want to give them a compliment and they say "I love your photos, that is a great camera". And you just stand there thinking "HELLO! I'm here, I made those photos not the camera" but you realize there is no point to explain, and you just leave it with a sour smile.
So how really is important to have a good equipment?
This question and my reply refers to people that want to achieve something significant in field of photography.
Many photographers will say its all about the person behind the trigger and I can not agree more but from my experience you really need to have some basic kit that will provide you with the decent quality and starting platform for further improvement. So at the end I will say its 90% for the photographer and 10% for the equipment.
I will clarify this by telling you my experience from beginning till now. My first camera 8 years ago was Fuji S5600. I wasn't choosing it, it was the only camera I could afford. Also I have to mention that I started to learn about the photography trough dark room and first cameras that I was using where film cameras. So this Fuji seemed like a good choice for start, and it was, served me good for many years. In the beginning I was practicing how to observe, how to catch the moments or things that most of people will not notice or to trap the stunning beauty worth to remember.
After some time I wanted more. I made my first solo exhibition that was very successful but I wasn't enjoying it for long. My knowledge about photography expended and my Photoshop skills were becoming better but my photos were somehow the same. I was becoming more and more aware of the lower quality of the picture and my editing skills just couldn't give me that perfect bokeh that is coming from the lens or couldn't repair that frayed edges. Just to add for the people that are not familiar with Fuji cameras, this one can not change the lenses.
I was comforting myself with things like "its all about the person behind the camera, the idea, the story, its about the content of the picture not the quality". But my ideas become bigger and more complex and where ever I was presenting them, people were looking down at my camera and treating me as an absolute beginner. The worse thing, they loved the content of my photos but they would say its not professional.
Now many of you will say "why you just didn't both a new camera"? I have to go back, at the beginning of my story where I said Fuji is the only thing I could afford. So buying a Nikon or Canon camera plus lenses was a privilege not necessity especially at the time of my pricy college. Film cameras became rare in a meantime and their prices also jumped for the collectors. And I wanted to stay in digital era anyway, because that was the future.
My first opportunity came when my boyfriend, now husband bought Nikon D40 and borrowed it to me. I felt like I was reborn, even with the kit lens only 18-55mm my work looked significantly better. I could crop!!! Omg I could crop and still keep great quality of the picture. I could have nice bokeh and 3 focus points without spending days in Photoshop, and even editing became easier. When I wanted to replace the background I didn't have to struggle with those huge pixels on the edges.
After some time working with this camera I felt like I climbed one more step in a photography. Later on I came to Dubai and both Nikon D700 with one wide angle prime, portrait prime and one zoom lens that I'm using today for work.
Still, for most of my studio shots that you can see on my web site I use very cheep studio kit lamps that my parents both me 5 years ago. These lamps are far away from perfect but I became emotionally attached to them and like many times before I yet need to earn for better ones.
As a conclusion to my story, I still think that what you will show with a picture is far more important than any equipment, but even a best ideas can look average if you don't have the right tool to shape them.
Learning, improving, perfecting things is the key to success for any profession and as our knowledge and experience are growing we need tools that can keep up, and save our time of losing it on less important things.
When I look back, I'm actually glad I couldn't start with some fancy camera because I learned so many things by taking a long way and achieved some great results with only compact camera which proved me that my love for this profession is bigger than any problem on the way.
Think about that next time when you think you can not achieve something just because you don't have the perfect lens :)
Many photographers experienced those moments when people want to give them a compliment and they say "I love your photos, that is a great camera". And you just stand there thinking "HELLO! I'm here, I made those photos not the camera" but you realize there is no point to explain, and you just leave it with a sour smile.
So how really is important to have a good equipment?
This question and my reply refers to people that want to achieve something significant in field of photography.
Many photographers will say its all about the person behind the trigger and I can not agree more but from my experience you really need to have some basic kit that will provide you with the decent quality and starting platform for further improvement. So at the end I will say its 90% for the photographer and 10% for the equipment.
I will clarify this by telling you my experience from beginning till now. My first camera 8 years ago was Fuji S5600. I wasn't choosing it, it was the only camera I could afford. Also I have to mention that I started to learn about the photography trough dark room and first cameras that I was using where film cameras. So this Fuji seemed like a good choice for start, and it was, served me good for many years. In the beginning I was practicing how to observe, how to catch the moments or things that most of people will not notice or to trap the stunning beauty worth to remember.
After some time I wanted more. I made my first solo exhibition that was very successful but I wasn't enjoying it for long. My knowledge about photography expended and my Photoshop skills were becoming better but my photos were somehow the same. I was becoming more and more aware of the lower quality of the picture and my editing skills just couldn't give me that perfect bokeh that is coming from the lens or couldn't repair that frayed edges. Just to add for the people that are not familiar with Fuji cameras, this one can not change the lenses.
I was comforting myself with things like "its all about the person behind the camera, the idea, the story, its about the content of the picture not the quality". But my ideas become bigger and more complex and where ever I was presenting them, people were looking down at my camera and treating me as an absolute beginner. The worse thing, they loved the content of my photos but they would say its not professional.
Now many of you will say "why you just didn't both a new camera"? I have to go back, at the beginning of my story where I said Fuji is the only thing I could afford. So buying a Nikon or Canon camera plus lenses was a privilege not necessity especially at the time of my pricy college. Film cameras became rare in a meantime and their prices also jumped for the collectors. And I wanted to stay in digital era anyway, because that was the future.
My first opportunity came when my boyfriend, now husband bought Nikon D40 and borrowed it to me. I felt like I was reborn, even with the kit lens only 18-55mm my work looked significantly better. I could crop!!! Omg I could crop and still keep great quality of the picture. I could have nice bokeh and 3 focus points without spending days in Photoshop, and even editing became easier. When I wanted to replace the background I didn't have to struggle with those huge pixels on the edges.
After some time working with this camera I felt like I climbed one more step in a photography. Later on I came to Dubai and both Nikon D700 with one wide angle prime, portrait prime and one zoom lens that I'm using today for work.
Still, for most of my studio shots that you can see on my web site I use very cheep studio kit lamps that my parents both me 5 years ago. These lamps are far away from perfect but I became emotionally attached to them and like many times before I yet need to earn for better ones.
As a conclusion to my story, I still think that what you will show with a picture is far more important than any equipment, but even a best ideas can look average if you don't have the right tool to shape them.
Learning, improving, perfecting things is the key to success for any profession and as our knowledge and experience are growing we need tools that can keep up, and save our time of losing it on less important things.
When I look back, I'm actually glad I couldn't start with some fancy camera because I learned so many things by taking a long way and achieved some great results with only compact camera which proved me that my love for this profession is bigger than any problem on the way.
Think about that next time when you think you can not achieve something just because you don't have the perfect lens :)
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