Photofocus

Warning – rant alert – A while ago I wrote a post saying photographers should stop making excuses and start making great images. I feel compelled to add to that post today because of something that happened when I posted a photo I made with my iPhone.

When I posted a photo I made with a Verizon iPhone 4, I did so with several goals in mind…

1. To show what the iPhone camera is capable of.
2. To show that you don’t need a $5000 camera to make a good photo.
3. To show that light is more important than a camera any day.

I expected to get lots of hate mail on this one simply because I wrote the word “iPhone.” Heck – I get hate mail if I say fish live in the water. But in this case I was a bit surprised by some of the comments on my Flckr stream and even more so in my email box.

Some people were irate that I would post this iPhone picture and somehow imply that gear doesn’t matter. Unfortunately – I can’t help what others decided I implied. I merely told the truth. You don’t need a $5000 camera to make a good photo. I didn’t say gear doesn’t matter. There’s a difference.

I won’t bother to go into detail. Suffice it to say that I left the various exchanges feeling sorry for these people. They are making excuses, looking for a crutch, desperately hoping for some poll they can mount their “I don’t have the right gear” banner on – all in hopes that they can be forgiven for not making good images.

I hope they stop this behavior. If they can simply stop making excuses and start shooting, they’ll see for themselves I am right. In fact, if this group spent half the energy they expend on complaining about their gear on actual photography, they’d be masters.

Please don’t fall into this trap. I didn’t always have the best gear. I started like everyone else with a cheap camera and borrowed gear and I was able to work my way through it because I didn’t make excuses. Shoot with what you have. Stop pretending that the next big piece of gear will make the difference for you. You don’t need a crutch. You need to go shoot.

As David du Chemin says, gear is good – vision is better.

End of rant.

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