The camera doesn’t matter. No, really.
A camera is nothing more than a rectangle and a little thing that records where you put the rectangle. That’s it. The true art of photography is figuring out where & when to place that rectangle. It doesn’t matter if it’s film or digital, 35mm, 6x9, or 12Mpix. I know this. Yet, sometimes, I allow myself to be seduced by the gear. Gotta stop that.
For the last two weeks, my fancy digital SLR has been down at Nikon getting repaired. I have five other, fully operational cameras: 4 film and one ancient 3Mpix digital. Yet, for some reason, I felt reluctant to shoot anything. Each time I thought of an idea, my brain came up with tons of reasons why I had to wait for my Nikon to get back. For example, I felt like I couldn’t do any street photography because I didn’t have my Nikon - never mind that I almost never use my Nikon on the street. I let the Nikon become my excuse.
While it was gone, I forced myself to experiment with the other cameras. I had a lot of fun once I got through a little internal resistance. All the illustrative photos you see on this blog were taken with that little 3Mpix camera or even my crappy 0.3Mpix phone. I enjoyed improvising around the limitations of those cameras.
Ultimately, the Nikon had become my experimental camera - being digital, I could make thousands of useless photos at no cost; being top-of-the-line, if I got a good pic, I could use it for gallery prints. Somehow, just having the camera around empowered me to be more free shooting with my other cameras. How odd! That tells me that the real issue was just feeling comfortable goofing off no matter what the gear.
I got my Nikon back yesterday. Suddenly, I feel free to try anything again - with this camera or with the others. I’m thinking of locking it away for a month, though. I’m not ready for it. I think there’s still a lesson my other cameras are trying to teach me.
Comments
I have periodically suffered from the same malady, but with a different twist. My two trusty Canon SLR's (30 year old AT's) are my friends. I also shoot with a Mamiya 6 and I love the negatives but it still, after only two years or so isn't my friend. I doubt that I will live long enough for it to gain that status.
I believe it was Ralph Steiner that said that there are only two hard things about photography: which direction you point the camera and when you do the shutter.
Too bad we mortals can't remember that.
Posted by: Ron | February 13, 2006 09:38 AM