It’s Not JUST the Camera
Originally published at Welcome To The Dollhouse. You can comment here or there.
I was visiting Jodi’s blog over at MCPActions and came upon one of her posts from a few days ago entitled, Your Camera Takes Great Pictures. As it frequently happens, she reports, someone gushing over her pictures will say, “Your camera is incredible. Every time I see your pictures I am blown away. Truly beautiful.” Clearly, according to this “compliment,” Jodi’s amazing photos are all about the camera and not about the person behind the camera. Ouch.
I’m such a tyro in this photography enterprise, but I can really get how such a dismissal of the work and creativity involved in good photography can sting like a bitch. Yes the tool (camera) is important, but if you don’t know how to properly use the tool to get the results you want, your $3000 D700 will end up being a very expensive point and shoot. You’ve got to have some respect for the learning behind the art.
There’s a belief out there that, as someone nicely summed up, goes like this: If you buy a camera you’re a photographer. If you buy a piano…well, you just bought a piano. Yet I’ll be the first one to tell you, buying an entry level dSLR did not make me a photographer. Reading the manual that came with the camera didn’t make me a photographer. What IS helping me learn to be an amateur photographer is the education (all the courses, books, and workshops I take), the practice (shooting all the time), the desire, and the discipline. It’s not JUST the camera. It IS knowing what to do with the camera, and in the postprocessing.
A great photographer can snap beautiful shots with an iPhone that an amateur couldn’t get with a pro camera. Why? Because s/he has skills that can be put to use with any tool. That’s the advantage of learning, practice, and experience. I mean hell, put Jeff Gordon in a broken down Impala and he’ll still beat my inexperienced ass trying to drive his car. In most cases skill trumps the tool. And combining the tool with skill is the best blending yet.
Somehow when it comes to cameras, however, people tend to forget that there is indeed skill involved and make it just about the tool.
Last month I attended a pool party with my colleagues from work. One of them, C, has a lovely infant daughter. C’s office is next door to mine and while mine looks like the photo shrine to Zara, his still has no pictures of his daughter. I’ve frequently said to him that I can come over and take pictures of his munchkin so that he too can adorn his walls. Mostly he just laughs, probably because he doesn’t think that my photos will be any good. Yet I came to the pool party with camera and lenses in tow, prepared to snap a few goodies to show him what I could do. Unfortunately, not long after we arrived, C and family decided to call it a party (the party was one of those all day/all night events). This left me with about 5 minutes to snap a few shots of a tired 11 month old, as the sun was fading, and without being able to get one smile. Even still I was proud of what I did manage to take.
After postprocessing, I sent the files to him a few days later, fingers crossed that he thought they were at least OK. Sure, give me more than 5 minutes and I could do better. At least, I got some nice ones.
He sends me an e-mail reply saying, “Oh my god, these pictures are amazing! I love them! You’re a good photographer, but you have a GREAT camera!”
And I was surprised to find that this stung a little bit. Sure it’s nicer than my old point and shoot, though not as nice as the real camera enthusiasts’ or pros’ cameras. Yet it was still my composition, my figuring out the angles, the lighting, the settings…essentially how to make the picture work that was 90% of the shot right there.
So the moral of this tale is to not over attribute amazing photos to JUST the camera. The person behind the lens did a good bit of work as well.
How ’bout a few parallels…
Wow, that was a great drive! You must have an amazing set of golf clubs!
Your painting is excellent! You must have some expensive brushes!
This cake is delicious! Is your mixer one of those high-powered Kitchenaids?
You’ve got great abs! Give me the name of your trainer!
I think I’ve made my point.
(One of my favorite pictures taken with my crap camera)