Is Your Gear Getting in Your Way?

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Does your photography gear get in the way of you concentrating and making great images?  What? How can my gear get in my way?

Do you have to think about how to change a camera or flash setting or can you set it automatically?  Do you have to stop what you are doing and figure out which lens is the best to use before making an image?  Did you ever try to change a camera setting and forget how to do it?  So, you either had to get the manual out or not make the change?  Do you often have to decide which gear to go out with?

In today's world, we have so many choices of cameras, lenses, formats, accessories, settings, etc. that it can be overwhelming.  I say that too many choices actually degrades the experience.  With too many choices, we sit and contemplate, waste time, agonize and try to decide which is the best camera, format, lens, setting, etc. to use to go on a photography outing or to make an image.

You may have too much gear or gear that you really haven't mastered.  There are remedies.

If your gear is getting in the way of making photographs, do one of four things.

a)  Learn your gear forwards and backwards.  Read the manual.  Let me write it again.  Read the manual.  Learn all the controls.  Try setting the controls without looking.  Set the controls.  Reset controls. Do it over and over until you know every control, every direction and how many clicks to move every dial and the location of every menu item.  When you are sitting in front of the television, riding a train or bus, have your camera in your hand and manipulate those controls.  Master your camera and strobes.

b) Practice with your equipment.  Everyday.  Do you know of any sport, profession, musician or master craftsman where the best of the best of them doesn't practice every single day?  No, because that is how they became the best.  You can't pick up your camera on Saturday and go out and expect to know it and make great images.  You, too, have to practice your technique and refine your vision every single day.  Every day.  Do it.  Take your camera with you everywhere and practice, if only your vision and seeing what is around you.

c) Put your camera on "P" for a change and just go with it.  Maybe you just need a break for a while.  Free yourself and your mind for a while.  You might just find out that the camera will make the same decisions about exposure as you would.  If it doesn't, figure out why the computer chose differently than you.  Just try it once or twice, only for a while, and see if you feel free of constraint or frustration.  Sometimes, if we change what we are doing and step out of our routine (even if we step back), we get better.  Challenge yourself to predict what shutter speed and aperture the camera will set to see if you understand your equipment.

d) Get new gear.  Maybe what you are using is too complicated for your skill level or your level of commitment to photography.  Get gear you can master.  Get gear you enjoy using.  You don't have to have professional level gear to be happy and make good images.  Get gear you can use without having to think how to use it.  Use fewer lenses.  Have fewer choices.  Make things easier so you can enjoy photography more.

If we buy things that are beyond our ability or commitment to the craft then don't take the time to master that equipment, practice with that equipment and learn that equipment's capabilities, then maybe we should get something simpler that we can handle.  Maybe.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook


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