Sep

Photographic Thoughts

This isn’t so much a picture post, but just some thoughts about cameras.

When I went to the Tour of Missouri the other day (photos coming soon, I promise!), I was struck by a bike. Just kidding. I was struck by the number of HUGE lenses that some of these photojournalists had. Like this one. Haha. Ok, more like these two. I felt meager and amatuerish with my 18-55 mm and 35-210mm lenses (which, notably, in any other circumstances, is not THAT small). Then I remembered two very important things. Oh yeah. I AM a professional. And it’s ok that I don’t have lenses like these people, because I don’t NEED lenses that big for what I do. Maybe we will someday if we ever wanted to get into sports photojournalism for newspapers or something. But as of now (nor in the near future), I do not own a lens that weighs more than my head and needs a monopod to support it. Hehe.

I saw a guy on a photography forum with a quote on his signature that said something like, “I have this big, beautiful camera. I just press the button.” I have to say, I completely disagree with that. It’s not what kind of camera you have. It’s what you do with it that counts. I’ve seen some cruddy shots taken with some super cameras, and some fantastic ones taken with point-and-shoots. More on this later. I have to go places.

Ok, I couldn’t resist. One photo from the Tour. Imagine a rush of wind blowing your face as these guys whiz past two feet from your face. And toes.