More gear or less: The Photographer's Paradox

Problem I'm having with this is the loaded term "photographic skill." How it's defined(narrowly?) and by whom(you alone?) seem pretty fixed. No interest in the shirt.

Like the diff. between porn and erotic art... I know it when I see it...




lol...



Seriously, it does show.
 
I. I said that you can become popular on there posting photos of your cat without any specialist gear or photographic knowledge
Cats of Instagram (@cats_of_instagram) • Instagram photos and videos

10 million followers suggests that - yes you can do this (and that was just the first one google threw up).
The actual message overall is, as I said earlier, generally good. It's the presentation and context of the video that I took issue with (that and the shirt!! ;))

Cats of Instagram is an aggregation site,with ONE theme, and has contributors from all over the world.The content focuses on cats (which is a video/still photo/meme topic that people like,and the site is followed by 10.2 million people world-wide. It is very popular, yes, but Ariana Grande has 151 million followers on IG.( Grande used to perform wearing cat ears--coincidence??)

YouTube has channels with from 0 to over 80 MILLION subscribers.

Facebook stats: 250 Amazing Facebook Statistics

Social media is here to stay, it seems. Perhaps we can acknowledge that it has become part of commerce. Remember when Bill Gates talked about the internet as being of little commercial value. Remember when Sears and JC Penny were big stores? Now, Amazon has made them largely irrelevant.
 
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I agree with the author of the video. In my experience minimizing and working with less gear and older gear (because I'm always broke anyways), and focusing mainly on vision and technical skill instead has allowed me to progress a great deal more than when I was focused on having the best gear with the sharpest focus and widest f/stop, or over complicating things with too much equipment. Gear doesn't really matter in my opinion, it's more about having a great vision and an understanding of light and color. A skilled photographer will make something beautiful even with a toy camera.
 
I think I'm a 'hybrid' gear fan - and I bet many are the same.

I have enough gear at home so I can take just what I need for a particular trip.

Heading out to do a pre-wedding photo session for two good friends (no fee as I'm just an amateur enthusiast) - I take all my lenses, two remote flashes plus stands, a reflector, an 'assistant' plus a light meter that I've never used 'just in case I need it'.

Going to a night market - latest body plus wide aperture 50mm equivalent lens and an f2.8 compact zoom.

Going away for a weekend and travelling light - an older body with integral flash and one 27mm prime lens.

Just because we own some gear does not mean we need to use it every time we go out - hence all the discussions about "what lens should I take for my trip to xxxxxx".
 
I'm not a big fan of social media, but I didn't have any problems getting the point he was making in the video. The message from his marketing friend was valid, and this video probably would have had better results if it had been presented by her directly.
 
More is less in many hobbies. One can end up hauling stuff they never seem to used. So you lighten the load and spend more time doing, until......you really need that one piece of gear you hardly, rarely, almost never, use. Then it is worth its weight in gold.

Murphy's law at its finest. :1247:
 
More is less in many hobbies. One can end up hauling stuff they never seem to used. So you lighten the load and spend more time doing, until......you really need that one piece of gear you hardly, rarely, almost never, use. Then it is worth its weight in gold.

Murphy's law at its finest. :1247:

THAT can happen, yes.
 
Going on holiday with family this makes me think hard on what to to take, how much can I get away with, vers what do I really need.
Norm is
mono pod, one body (canon 600d) three lenses. Close, med far. Pocket full sd cards half doz batteries and mains charger and two lens cloths
 
Going on holiday with family this makes me think hard on what to to take, how much can I get away with, vers what do I really need.
Norm is
mono pod, one body (canon 600d) three lenses. Close, med far. Pocket full sd cards half doz batteries and mains charger and two lens cloths
Yeah, that's what I've been grappling with lately. My family vacation kit has been shrinking slowly. With a 1.5 year old, it's hard justifying all the extra gear (body, multiple lenses, tripod, etc) when we're already carrying a baby bag and stroller.

Right now, my travel kit essentially consists of body (Olympus EM1), two lenses (12-40 f/2.8 and 14-150 f/var), and if I have the space and depending on the vacation: tripod and flash. (That doesn't include the extra batteries, SD cards, and chargers.) I can fit everything comfortably into a Tenba bag insert (except tripod which goes outside).

What I'm dealing with now is a need to actually slim down even further (depending on where we go), so I've been debating a "P&S"-like camera (like the Ricoh GRiii or the Fuji X100F). The Ricoh's pocketability and streamlined use has really piqued my interest. The need to slim down more is related to me documenting the vacation rather than taking more artistic shots. I want my child to grow up seeing us enjoying vacations rather than shots that can be found on Google image search...
 
Like Wade, kids forced me to greatly reduce what I carry.

I'm down to XT-2 and the matching 18-55mm lens nearly always. Very occasionally, I'll throw on the 35mm f1.4 that I have, but I'm honestly considering getting rid of that, too, and getting a wider angle zoom instead. I love prime lens. I don't have the luxury of time to dicker around with carrying 4 of them anymore. (You zoom with the feet crowd must live in places with more space than I ;) ) .
 
"zoom with your feet is really a misnomer, a canard, a myth. It does not work the same as framing with focal length; "zooming with the feet" profoundly changed the perspective of the shot.
 
I saw two messages in the video, both of which I agree with.

#1 - Do you REALLY need all that gear? As I have gotten older, I ran smack into a problem; I cannot physically carry the year that I could when I was younger. So I had to rethink my kit to be smarter and lighter. Compromise.

#2 - Know your market, and match your kit to the market requirement.
If your market is not "pixel peepers," don't worry about the 40+MP camera with the ultra expensive pro lens. It is like a discussion we had MANY years ago,
How many MP do you NEED to make a 3-1/2 x 5 inch print?
I think the answer was less than 3MP. So then why do you "need" a 20MP camera?​
Match the kit to the event requirement.

In a way, this is similar to the logic I apply to a travel kit.
Compromise is the name of the game.
  • The primary parameter is minimum bulk/size and weight.
    • So I use a micro 4/3 kit rather than a DX or FX kit.
  • The kit is planned to to handle 80-90% of my needs at a "good enough" level of quality.
  • I bring my small/light Panasonic-Lumix 12-60, and leave the larger/heavier pro Olympus 12-40 and 12-100 at home.
  • If I have a really long shot, I just have to crop into my shot, rather than carry the long lens, that I would use less than 1% of the time.
  • If I bring a flash, it is a small shoe flash. I would leave the big flash, flash bracket and HV battery pack at home.
Now if I was shooting my nephew's wedding, the parameters change.
  • Different event, importance of the event and target audience.
  • I may or may not bring the DX kit. m4/3 seems to be good enough that I don't see a huge difference between m4/3 and DX.
  • With m4/3, I would bring the heavier pro lenses.
  • I would bring the bigger flash, flash bracket and HV battery pack.
    • I'm a flash speed junkie. Once you get used to FAST recycle times with a HV pack, it is really hard to go back.
    • I might bring a couple light stands, flashes, remotes, and umbrellas.
  • I would draft one of the nephews to be my assistant/sherpa, to carry the gear for me.
  • The kit bulk and weight would go up; at least 4x in weight and at least 6x in bulk, likely more.
    • In this situation, bulk and weight reduction is not a primary goal. Image quality is. So there is less room for compromise.
 
"zoom with your feet is really a misnomer, a canard, a myth. It does not work the same as framing with focal length; "zooming with the feet" profoundly changed the perspective of the shot.

This is so true. But it leave a dilemma...

I *choose* to carry only three primes and at the same time I also recognise that I will not be able to capture every single shot, I will miss some. At the same time it also makes me think of what I *can* do rather than try to cater for every eventuality. I have the luxury of being able to do this because I'm not working to a brief or an expectation. I find it liberating.

My photographs no longer rely on having the correct gear, I no longer think in terms of how the gear will produce the shot. I only think in terms of how I can do it. As I said it means that I will miss opportunities, but then again I do not think that the opportunities are created by the gear I carry.

It's a mindset more than anything, but a very liberating one. If I were to do this professionally I would probably use a zoom at functions, and would probably find photography a chore rather than an enjoyment as only those who can communicate a vision get to direct a client...
 
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Like Wade, kids forced me to greatly reduce what I carry.

I'm down to XT-2 and the matching 18-55mm lens nearly always. Very occasionally, I'll throw on the 35mm f1.4 that I have, but I'm honestly considering getting rid of that, too, and getting a wider angle zoom instead. I love prime lens. I don't have the luxury of time to dicker around with carrying 4 of them anymore. (You zoom with the feet crowd must live in places with more space than I ;) ) .
Yeah, the 12-40 for me usually gets stuck on my camera... I just don’t have time to change it, and sometimes that’s not a bad thing when vacationing with family. I hear you, though, I love my primes. Just wish I could use them more.
 

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