I'm Going Shooting. What Do I Take?

Hey folks. It happens like this. You wake up and it’s that kind of day where you want to go out and make some photographs, and I mean make photographs, not just take pictures.

So you think about where to go, and what you want to accomplish and you get a pretty good idea in your head of what that will look like. It’s all going so well. but then…

What Gear Am I Going To Take?

One of the greatest challenges for creatives is known as the fear of missing out. That thing that we all wonder about at one time or another. “What if I get there, and I see something that I wasn’t expecting and that I don’t the right camera body, lens, flash, hat, unicorn….” “I didn’t bring spare batteries, or spare memory cards, or a lens brush, or a teepee”

You Become a Pack Mule

So your great plan to go make images of birds, or a landscape or do some closeup work gets buried under what if. You have an idea of what you want to do. Maybe it’s to go to greenhouse and make images of tropical flowers. So you take your camera and put your macro lens on it. If you’re me, a flash immediately goes in the bag. Then you start to think about long exposures and the tripod comes out. And maybe you want to get more magnification so in goes a set of extension tubes. Oh oh, now you need your off camera flash stuff. And direct flash is ugly so a reflector or big bounce card is a good idea. Hmm how will I hold that stuff. Maybe a stand? A Platypod? How about some clips, some gaffer tape and maybe a spring clamp. What if the flower I want to photograph is in a position that I cannot get close to, and it’s really small, so I had better take a long telephoto lens, and since I am carrying that, I should put a teleconverter in the bag because it’s small and doesn’t take up a lot of space.

Where is My Personal Shreve?

You pick up the bag and having decided that you need all this stuff, you’ve found that your bag is overstuffed so you repack everything into a backpack which is easier to carry. Except that getting at anything inside it means taking it off and putting it down to open it up and that means you had better put in at least a garbage bag to act as a ground sheet. Hmm, I should probably have an ultra wide angle lens as well for some creative dimensional stuff…

You get it all together and pick it up and pull a muscle. Surely someone is willing to come with and carry the load, isn’t there?

This Happens All The Time

I know that you are grinning. Perhaps sheepishly because you recognize yourself. And maybe it has happened more than once, because hey you spent all that money on all that gear and what was the point if you don’t carry it.

STOP

My personal inspiration to become a photographer was Alfred Eisenstadt. For decades he went out and made amazing photographs using a single camera body and a single lens. It wasn’t a giant body with a big motor winder that sounded like a Gatling Gun at full chat. It was a small lightweight camera with a 35mm lens providing a slightly greater angle of view than the “standard” lens of then and now, the 50mm. He also carried a couple of rolls of film. And that’s it. Yet without a wagon train of gear, he successfully made wonderful images of people and places and events that remain compelling to this day.

The Gear Doesn’t Matter

Photographers generally love gear, The more the better. The larger and faster the lens the better. The more megapixels the better. The higher the burst rate the better. Except that none of that stuff makes a photograph. The human brain and eye make the photograph, all the stuff is just a tool bag, and a tool bag that is too heavy and a hassle and filled with stuff doesn’t help, it just gets in the way.

So make yourself a deal. The next time you are ready to go make photographs, follow the minimalist process. One camera, one lens. Maybe a small shoulder bag to carry them in. If your battery is charged and your memory card was made in the last six years, you have enough capacity to take and store hundreds of pictures.

Go out and SEE. Don’t let the equipment rule you, you must rule it and in so doing, it takes on its designated role of tool and stays the heck out of the way.

If you focus on the seeing, and not on the number of images and fifty pounds of gear, you will come home with fewer and better photos. No burst mode, no bracketing, no stupid filter tricks. Bring home ONE photograph that you will be pleased to make a print from and you’ve won the day.

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