“You still doing photography?” “Hey we need to talk about lighting when you get a chance.” “Get any good pictures lately?”
I like photography, as I’ve gone on about here time and time again. It’s a delicious blend of technology and art, with a healthy dose of accidental journalism. I’d never have called it a passion or anything, but definitely an enjoyed hobby. And I find I’m drifting away from it. But before I get to that, a brief aside.
Lifehacker has a series of articles called How I Work… they’re kind of the only thing I find worth reading over there. They get assorted notable people to list out their routines, technology, styles, etc. Yesterday they added one for Mike Senese, editor of Make Magazine. It included this tidbit:
Besides your phone and computer, what gadget can’t you live without and why?
My Nikon camera. I’ve always loved photography, and have continually upgraded my gear for a long time. We had a baby last year and I decided that it was the right time to finally get a full-frame DSLR and some high-quality lenses. I carry it with me almost everywhere, although man that nice glass is heavy.
Ugh. No, man, you’re doing this wrong. One, you don’t carry all your glass with you unless you’re intending to use it all, like at an event of some sort. If your camera doesn’t have a decent walking-around-lens then you’re looking at it the wrong way. And two, full frame is good and all, but they’re for shots where you need to capture a LOT of picture, and a baby doesn’t necessitate that.
But I point this out because his response, and my return advice, kind of tie in to why photography is on a downslope for me. I have a big body and nice glass (though neither full frame, nor all of it carried with me at all times), and it’s been great and I don’t regret having it. But the need is vanishing. There’s relatively little, for my needs, that the big beast can do that my smaller G10 can’t. And I don’t even carry that most of the time. Not anymore.
I remember after the iPhone came out a lot of the tech world starting saying dumb things about how the cell phone camera had, then, replaced the big horrible camera. And that’s a damn dirty lie, because even 8 years later even the top end cell phone cameras (while impressive) still can’t hold a candle to a decent full body with top end glass. But they do cover the day to day needs of 90% of the population. Hell, even the local newspaper replaced most of its photographers for stories and just gave the reporters iPhones, since the image will be scaled down and lose a lot of its luster in that print format anyway.
And that’s a good thing. It is! Because I don’t need to worry that I’m going to miss anything (on my commute, which is basically the only place I go these days… =( ) by not having a few pounds of camera with me.
Or 10 pounds of camera with me, while carrying a baby I’m supposed to be photographing. Weirdo.