Friday
Oct292010
Your Tool is Not Your Art
Friday, October 29, 2010 at 10:11AM
I'm 301 days into my Project 365, and I've definitely hit another wall. Mostly, it's that I've gotten lazy. There are so many other wonderful things that I'm giving my attention, and lately, going outside to make sure and take a thoughtful photo hasn't been one of those things.
I'm still fairly new to digital SLR photography, but I'm not new to procrastination and tool-fetishizing. ("I NEED that new laptop/fountain pen/Moleskine/writing desk/writing space so I can move forward in my craft/art!") This is such a handy procrastination tool: since there's no way you can just go out and buy that oh-so-required tool right away, you can blame your inaction on lacking that tool.
Last night, I browsed onto 's great review site to look at what wide angle lens I'd like to get early in 2011. While there, I fell upon his "Your Camera Doesn't Matter" article, which brought me back to reality:
Ernst Haas commented on this in a workshop in 1985:
Two laddies from Nova Scotia had made a huge effort to be there and were great Leica fans, worked in a camera store, saved to have them and held Ernst on high for being a Leica user (although he used Nikons on his Marlboro shoots, when the chips were down).
About four days into the workshop, he finally maxxed out on the Leica adoration these kids displayed, and in the midst of a discussion, when one of them asked one more question aimed at establishing the superiority of Wetzlar, Ernst said, "Leica, schmeica. The camera doesn't make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE."
Nobody talked about Leica, Nikon, Canon or any other brand of camera equipment for the rest of the workshop.
He also said, "Best wide-angle lens? 'Two steps backward' and 'look for the ah-ha'."
Right. Haha. Buying a new lens will be fun and will satisfy my American-consumer-impulses. But it won't make me a better photographer overnight. What will make me a better photographer is stepping outside as often as possible, taking a moment to breathe, and SEEING. It's easy to do on vacation, and it's much more challenging to do in everyday life.
But it's always worth it.
I'm still fairly new to digital SLR photography, but I'm not new to procrastination and tool-fetishizing. ("I NEED that new laptop/fountain pen/Moleskine/writing desk/writing space so I can move forward in my craft/art!") This is such a handy procrastination tool: since there's no way you can just go out and buy that oh-so-required tool right away, you can blame your inaction on lacking that tool.
Last night, I browsed onto 's great review site to look at what wide angle lens I'd like to get early in 2011. While there, I fell upon his "Your Camera Doesn't Matter" article, which brought me back to reality:
Ernst Haas commented on this in a workshop in 1985:
Two laddies from Nova Scotia had made a huge effort to be there and were great Leica fans, worked in a camera store, saved to have them and held Ernst on high for being a Leica user (although he used Nikons on his Marlboro shoots, when the chips were down).
About four days into the workshop, he finally maxxed out on the Leica adoration these kids displayed, and in the midst of a discussion, when one of them asked one more question aimed at establishing the superiority of Wetzlar, Ernst said, "Leica, schmeica. The camera doesn't make a bit of difference. All of them can record what you are seeing. But, you have to SEE."
Nobody talked about Leica, Nikon, Canon or any other brand of camera equipment for the rest of the workshop.
He also said, "Best wide-angle lens? 'Two steps backward' and 'look for the ah-ha'."
Right. Haha. Buying a new lens will be fun and will satisfy my American-consumer-impulses. But it won't make me a better photographer overnight. What will make me a better photographer is stepping outside as often as possible, taking a moment to breathe, and SEEING. It's easy to do on vacation, and it's much more challenging to do in everyday life.
But it's always worth it.
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