Your digital BFF

“Poets, priests and politicians have words to thank for their positions”- Sting

You camera should be your friend. As we talked about in the last post, the modern DSLR camera is too complicated. I wrote about how the camera is simple and it is the camera manufacturers that make it complicated. They make it more difficult to use every time they add a new feature, a new menu and a new button. To make sense of it all they give you a big fat manual that we never take out of the plastic wrap because it is too thick and too many words and “why do I need 337 custom settings?”  and “what is picture style anyway?” and “what am I going to do with another French version?”

Painter’s brushes don’t come with a manual and writers don’t get excited about a new word processing program. So why do we get so excited about new cameras? Photography is one of the most technical art forms but it doesn’t have to be so complicated. Most pros approach photography simply, putting creativity before buttons.  This post is all about the importance of having a better relationship with your camera because to really make great photographs and express what you feel and translate that feeling through the lens onto the sensor and into the heart of the viewer, you need to be good friends with your camera. (How was that for a Hemingway sentence?) Your camera should be your BFF. If you talk to most pro photographers they don’t constantly update cameras every time a new one comes out. (Yes, some of them salivate like the rest of us at the bigger better more buttons thing that Canon just announced but most throw down their visa card down for the new lenses). Some of the best photographers in history, like Henri Cartier Bresson, used the same Leicas for years. Yes, maybe he was cheap and saved his money for lattes at the Café de Flore, but I bet the reason he used the same gear was because he got to know it intimately, like you know your favorite cooking knife, fly fishing rod or that sweet spot on your cars gas pedal that likes to go 120.  By using the same gear for years, or at least thousands of frames, Bresson got to know all its little nuances, and by knowing it well he knew how to use it smoothly, easily, quickly. So if you want to become better friends with your camera don’t send it out to the consignment pasture as soon as something newer comes out, hang onto it and get to know how to make it your creative friend like New York fashion legend Bill Cunningham (great film!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYqiLJBXbss)

Next week…how nothing is something