I was reading someone's response to a friend's photo on facebook the other day, and it went something like, "wow... that's a great photo - you must have an awesome camera!"
Whenever I hear that (or read that) I get all riled up. That kind of "compliment" is akin to telling a painter that his paintings are good because of the brushes he uses, or a musician that his music sounds great because of the instrument. I doubt anyone ever said to Picasso, "wow... that painting is amazing - you must have some awesome brushes!"
A camera is a tool, and unless you know what you're doing with it you likely won't get a good image out of it.
So that gets me to a really great write-up I read on my friend's Arni Cheatham's blog today - How to take your toys and not yourself seriously. Arni is an amazing photographer, and equally amazing musician. He was a coworker of mine up until last year when he retired. In the short while I worked with Arni I learned a lot from him about photography, and continue to keep in touch with him.
In his post he talks about how easy it is to get hung up on gear, and that you need to remember that it's not necessarily the camera that makes the image great, but the eyes that see the image through the camera. It's a good read.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
you can get a better photo from a holga than an SLR sometimes...
Matt, thanks for sharing Arni's post. I completely agree with both of you. Sometimes my PnS pics are as good as or better than my DSLR ones!
Peace, Judi
I think when people tell me my photos are great and then they ask what camera I use I'll just tell them it was a disposable camera from walmart.
Agree Matt. it's in the eye, my friend, in the eye.
i like this.. coming from an amateur photographer who has no fancy equiptment ;)
Post a Comment