It's never about the equipment

December 19, 2010 @ 6:15AM

It's never about the equipment

... It's what you do with it

By Haje Jan Kamps

Topics
News

I know I've probably said this about six thousand times already, but if there was ever any doubt that it's all about what you do with your equipment, rather than how many moneys you spent on buying them, check out this slice of niftyness:

So, what are we looking at here? Only an absolutely fantastic animation, made with competely free HTML5 software: Google Documents.

The lesson remains: It doesn't matter if you have cutting edge technology or a 6-year old digital camera: If you haven't got creativity, you don't have a snowball's chance in hell of creating something truly fantastic.

So - don't worry about what's in your camera bag. Worry about what's between your ears.

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Comments

AaronM

1 year ago

Okay. So then let me ask you this question: How does one train one's creativity?

People focus on what's in their camera bag because they can do something about that. You can buy a faster lens, or a rig that handles noise better. You can't trundle on down to the photo store and buy a dose of inspiration. And when people shrug their shoulders and say: "Well, you either have it or you don't," that offers nothing but discouragement to the person they're telling doesn't have it.

Worrying about "what's between your ears" isn't worth squat if you can't do anything about it. If it can't be learned or trained or cultivated, of what use is it to be concerned with it? So tell us... How do we plant the seed; and nurture it into something truly fantastic?

Haje Jan Kamps

Pixiq Expert

1 year ago

You're a step ahead of me, sir - stay tuned for a post titled "Developing your creative vision".

I don't believe that "You either have it or you don't" - but it's probably true that it comes more easily to some people than to others.

Matthew Lit

1 year ago

As both a photography educator and Holga Toy Camera photographer I push my vision and that of my students. Google for the Holga (my site is HolgaToyCamera.com) and you'll see the photographers who truly understand that it "ain't the equipment, but what you do with it."

As I tell my (film) photo students on the first night of class: "I can teach you to shoot a technically perfect photograph. I can teach you to develop a technically perfect negative. I can teach you to print a technically perfect print. BUT, if nothing happens for you in the viewfinder, if you have no emotional response to what you see, then all you'll end up with is a perfectly exposed, perfectly printed mediocre photograph."

You have to have the emotional response to what you see first, then the eye to know how to visually relate what you see.

AaronM

1 year ago

So if a student comes to you and says that they're just not feeling the mojo, what do you tell them?

Matthew Lit

1 year ago

Hey Aaron - Good question. My response is to start by taking off the blinders. Look around you. May sound a bit too metaphysical, but seriously - step outside yourself and start to see the world surrounding you...whether your interest is people (I was a photojournalist, originally), a nature photographer, whatever your vision...start seeing.

My approach in teaching is pretty old-school. I do not use PowerPoint presentations and I don't overuse sample images. Instead, I ask that my students use the power of their imaginations to "see" a photo in their heads. I ask my students to "tell" me a photograph, so we can figure out the technical aspects of capturing it. It makes them begin the process of using their imaginations and previsualizing what the photograph will (or could) look like!

Then, get out and shoot!!!