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cameras, cycling, essay, gear, inspiration, lenses, photography, photography gear, spin bike, technology, time travel
Photography is NOT about your Camera or your Lens
Everything is about gear nowadays. We see a great picture and we ask “hey, what camera and lens did you use?”. I do it as well. I think to myself, if only I had that new camera from Sony, Fuji, Nikon, Canon that just came out, I would take so much better pictures. I know I’m wrong but I still do it because I’m a tech nerd. I love technology of every shape or form.
If only I had that Zeiss or Leica lens I would shoot so many great pictures, I would get so many followers on Instagram and my blog audience would grow exponentially. But that’s just silly because I started photography because I loved (and still do) to capture memories of my day to day life and revisit them from time to time.
Your phone takes good enough pictures for about 90% of the people in most situations and you have your phone with you all the time so there’s no excuse for not taking pictures.
Photography is about TIME TRAVEL
Because when you look at old photos of people and places it’s like you have just invented your own personal time machine. All of a sudden you’re transported to the seaside and feel the warm sun gently caressing your face while the cool breeze makes you shrug a little. You hear the waves hitting the beach, you feel the warm sand beneath your feet and your friends chatting, smiling, splashing in the water. You feel young and happy and careless and free!
Or all of a sudden you’re transported to a mountain top and everything around you is white and blue there are mountain peaks in the distance covered with snow and forests of white. And the wind is blowing so cold and hard as if it was alive and with every breath you take you fell how small and insignificant you are compared to nature’s might and strength.
Photography is food for the soul
Your soul will never need a personal Chef named Zeiss or Leica, or whatever other camera brand name you’re craving for, to take great pictures. Sure there is such a thing as a technically perfect photo but your soul will choose a perfect photo not by the camera or lens or the settings with witch the photo was taken with but with the emotion behind the photo, the feeling you had in that unique moment in time. The fear, the love the admiration, the nostalgia, the color, the past, the warmth, the cold.
Photography is about being in the moment
Photography will make you see the world in a new LIGHT. Probably because for the first time in your life you will start to appreciate light and what it can do for your photos. You will start to notice light, shadows, colors, contrast and see the world as never before.
Take whatever camera you have and feed your passion for being in the moment and capturing those precious moments in your life because that’s what photography is about.
What is your photography about?
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smackedpentax said:
Excellent post – and I agree totally with you. Besides, I defy anyone to look at a photograph and tell which gear it was taken with. Recently I was on a business trip abroad, and I stayed in the Amsterdam Hilton. My room had a large framed b/w photograph hanging on the wall. It was of a man fixing a puncture on a bicycle. The cycle was upside down, down a side alley and the man had his sleeves rolled up, cig in his mouth and was fixing it. The lighting was shining towards the viewer and the man was in part silhouette. Now I have been taking photos for 50 years, but this one struck me – there was something exceptional about it. Even now when I think of it I get a shudder. The thing is, it must have been taken in the 30’s or 40’s when camera and lens technology wasn’t at it’s best. And if you got up close to it you could see it wasn’t completely sharp – but I very much doubt if taken on a new Nikon or Canon it would be any better – it was the content that made the shot, not the camera 🙂
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seabornen said:
Thanks for the kind comment and the story. I found myself many a time in front of great images which were taken with minimal gear so I know the feeling 🙂
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thiaacorn said:
Absolutely fantastic! I couldn’t agree more.
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seabornen said:
Thanks, glad you liked it!
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mrdulls said:
I agree people are obsessed by the technology but not just by the camera/lens.
Now you can inspect every dot that makes up a photo people are obsessed by tiny things that no normal person would notice. Its a case of not seeing the picture for the dots.
One of my favourite photos is one I took right at the start of using a camera and its a technical mess but it always gives me the feeling wide open space and tranquility.
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seabornen said:
Couldn’t agree more. My point and shoot photos are some of my most precious because of that feeling of being free with so little technology and knowledge. However it’s hard to go back to my point and shoot now 🙂
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infraredrobert said:
Indeed, gear is only a small part of what makes an image…I only ask about gear because I am a photo-nerd and just curious as to how other photographers work. In the end it is the unique vision of the artist embedded in the final image.
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seabornen said:
I’m very curios about gear as well, cameras, lenses, brands, I want to know it all! 🙂
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infraredrobert said:
Yes, but I usually say that I am just geeky interested and it is not a competition about gear.
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nivs24 said:
Usually, someone interested in photography writes a good caption or perhaps convey a good photo story. I find it interesting that your posts are about photography and they are engaging too.
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seabornen said:
Thank you nivs24, much appreciated!
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Peter Corr said:
I agree completely…ideally, the equipment should be invisible, unseen…..not an additional barrier.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts and your work
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Noel Hartem said:
Capturing the story within the picture comes from the eye not what type of lens. love the bikefest pic…..You captured her moment with a lens
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