My gear IS good enough, what?

I’m an OK photographer – very occasional flashes of brilliance surrounded by a middle-of-the-road competence behind the lens (at least, that’s my view of my own work!). I can produce a reasonable result in most situations, and I do try to get it right in the camera (because I hate editing, and I’m a better shooter than I am a Photoshopper!!).

In the back of my mind I’m always telling myself “that image could have been great if I had a sensor that dealt with low light better”, or “if only I had the 200mm f2 fixed Canon lens, my shots would be awesome”!! But it would appear I have been deluding myself…

Lee Morris from fstoppers.com has got me a little irked. He’s completely undermined my “better gear is required” stance, and left me wondering if I really should give it all away!! See, he sort of did a full professional fashion shoot, using an iPhone 3Gs, and then asked for critique (without telling viewers what happened behind the scenes….)

Of course, everyone thought his images were amazing and the best ever, etc, etc… Lee went on to say this little gem in the article:

There are so many photographers who are obsessed with noise, sharpness, color, dynamic range, megapixels, chromatic aberration, moire, distortion, etc. So many photographers get wrapped up in the technical side that they forget how to take compelling images. This video is for them.

Thanks Lee – c’mon, photo-brother, we’re supposed to be supporting each other!! Don’t be undermining my excuses and justifications!! I can’t show my partner this article, there’s no way she’ll ever approve ANY future purchases of lovely, shiny, tasty tech gear…

*sigh* I guess this means I need to focus on actually being a good shooter, dammit!! Watch the video, it is definitely worth the look!! As a side note, it is obvious a quality retoucher is important (yes, a QUALITY retoucher…)

Fave quotes:
“I’m going to shoot an entire fashion shoot with the worst camera possible – ANY Olympus SLR camera…”
“Dude, this can’t even shoot RAW!!”