“What a great camera!” I first heard this at a friend’s wedding over ten years ago. At the time I was one of the (back then) few people who were using digital cameras. I had just captured the bouquet toss of the bride mid-air, when somebody attributed it to my camera gear.

When photography became available to the masses, there was always a focus on the mechanical aspects of it. Clicking the shutter seems so simplistic and mechanical. The issue arises because photography has may different uses, one of which is its use as artistic medium.

Even those of us who use photography for artistic purposes get confused at times about the role of our equipment. Most of us who use digital cameras get trapped in the “upgrade hamster wheel”, where we feel we constantly “need” the latest cameras to be able to make outstanding photographs. Photographers are probably the only visual artist who fiercely discuss merits of equipment.

When I thought about the role of equipment, I noticed that…

1. The well-known famous photographs by past photographers were made with cameras most people wouldn’t even touch today, because they would be considered so simple. Yet the idea in those photographs is what transcends into our time, and we don’t really care what process the photographer used at the time.
2. Nobody (except maybe some serious pixel peepers) can look at an image and tell that it was taken with a “substandard five year old digital camera”. Or to put it differently, it is better to make a great image with an older camera, than to make an insignificant image with the latest equipment.
3. Digital cameras are marketed as electronics and follow the same patterns as other electronics. Marketing pushes new products onto us constantly with insignificant new features, although most of us don’t use all the features of our current products.
4. We are about to reach market saturation for digital SLRs. This means that manufacturers may slow down their product cycles, and we may see longer time periods between releases of new products and more significant added features between products.
5. Most people that have a halfway decent SLR body get more value out of a new lens than a new camera body. Most people do not make better images because their digital SLR sensor has higher resolution, but instead with a new lens that adds new capabilities.
6. Prime lenses (fixed focal lenses) instead of zoom lenses still offer a lot of advantages, mostly in light sensitivity and weight.
7. Not everybody needs a high resolution camera, unless images are frequently enlarged. Of course there are workarounds like stitching images, or using medium or large format film and cameras when high resolution is required.
8. It is oftentimes better to have a less valuable camera that can be taken everywhere than to use an expensive camera that stays at home because of fear of getting stolen or damaged.
9. We oftentimes think about buying a new camera body to get a change in pace and think this will improve our photographs. Instead it may be better to spend money on accessories that give us new capabilities, for example: inexpensive studio lighting kit (2-3 light stands, umbrellas, monolights, or continuous lights), battery-operated multi flash kit, inkjet printer to print your own work, macro lens, extreme wide-angle lens, underwater housing for camera, compact tripod for sharper images in the field.
10. Before we can create art, we need to master the technique (or craft) of photography. When we arrive at this stage, using the camera becomes second nature and is controlled subconciously. To get there, we need to practice every day. Then we can focus on the image, how it makes us feel, what we are passionate about, whatever camera we are using.

Thank you for reading. I appreciate your thoughts and comments.

Lars Waldmann

It is always a challenge to stay creative in photography, when as photographers we tend to go to the same places all the time, taking the same pictures, using the same equipment.

As landscape photographers especially we get (the wrong) idea by looking at photography magazines that “true landscape photography” can only be done in the Southwest in the famous National Parks. Of course this notion is not true because here in the Northeast we have many beautiful places.

Here are some ideas that may be helpful in staying creative in photography:

1. Use only one lens with one focal length for a week. If you don’t have a single focal length lens (prime lens), put some tape over the zoom ring of your lens to temporarily fix it to one focal length. A couple weeks ago I noticed I was using almost exclusively a 90 mm macro lens. To get a different perspective, I switched to a 28 mm wide angle lens.
2. If you regularly use digital, use film for a while. Digital cameras are a great learning tool because of the instant feedback, but it also tends to make us less careful about the process, because we can quickly fire off another burst of five images without carefully checking the composition. By using film, we need to slow down because we are limited to a maximum of about 36 images, and we can’t get instant feedback on the image. This means that we create a memory of the image and it is sometimes surprising to see how images on film look when we see them after a couple of days. Don’t get me wrong, I like digital photography a lot and I use digital cameras regularly, but I noticed how I shoot differently with film compared to digital.
3. Go to a place your regularly photograph and make an effort to make a different image. Use a different piece of gear, or a different lens. Try to get a different perspective by getting on the ground for example.
4. Print some of your favorite images as contact sheet (i.e. 12 images on a letter size sheet), tape it onto a wall and look at it from a distance. How does the color or texture look from a distance? Do the images look similar or dis-similar from a distance?
5. Look for photography books for inspiration. Now that gear and books all have to be about “digital” photography, there a lots of inexpensive used photography books out there. For creative inspiration, it does not matter how an image was made, whether by film or digital photography.
6. If you always make images in color, try b/w only for a week. If you use digital photography, do not “cheat” by recording raw files that can be used for color or b/w images. The idea is to be committed to making b/w images only and to “see” in b/w. With color photography, we tend to see color contrast (i.e. the red tomato in the midst of green leaves). For b/w, many colors are rendered the same tone and we need to pay attention to textures, light, and shadow. This will help enormously with color photography, too.
7. Take your (or a) camera everywhere you go. If you don’t want to or can’t take you camera with you, your cell phone may have a camera built-in. Look for light in places you walk by. How does light throughout the day affect the way a place looks like?
8. Take some images every day. A musician needs to rehearse every day. Being a visual artist requires the same diligence. Set yourself a goal, i.e. I want to take at least 20 images every day. Look at them, and delete them, if there is nothing worth keeping. (This is the beauty of digital photography.)
9. Become an expert in places you got to regularly. It helps if the place is easily accessible, so you can go there regularly. Know how the light throughout the day makes the place look. What images can be made on an overcast day?
10. Print your own work. While fewer and fewer images are printed every year, and with computers we manage information, there is still something beautiful about a printed image. These days a decent photo quality printer can be bought for under $100. It completes the experience of ‘making’ vs. ‘taking’ an image, when it is printed by the photographer.
11. Before purchasing new equipment, define what features you expect to gain. What features do you gain that your current equipment does not deliver? Is it worth all the associated costs (new spare batteries etc.)? Remember that it is not the gear that takes images, it is the photographer.  To illustrate this point I wanted to add two recent examples of my equipment purchases (a) A couple of months ago I upgraded my DSLR because I wanted to have better high-ISO performance, and I was not disappointed. (b) Shortly afterwards, I was tempted to buy a 6×7 medium format system to upgrade from my 6×4.5 system. After reviewing the image quality and my investment in lenses I decided against it, because my 6×4.5 system provides already more than enough resolution and the 6×4.5 is more compact and more economic with film use than a 6×7 system. Instead I added macro extension rings to my system to extend its capabilities.

I would love to hear your opinion, or to hear what helps you to stay creative in photography. Maybe we can start a discussion.

Thanks for reading,

Lars Waldmann