Subscribe by email
Subscribe by RSS feed
A Long Way To Go: A Rant
August 15th, 2008
It’s been a gear-intensive week for me personally, as well as on the blog. So in the interest of balance and getting this sermon out before I burst, here’s a change of direction to close out the week.
We keep getting told by the camera-makers and gadget-mongers that you just need a great (new! shiny!) camera and the rest is easy. Shoot like a pro, they say, all you need is this new camera. It used to be hard, but not now. Now the camera has face-detection and auto-focus and light-meters that Stephen Hawking made with pixie dust and the help of VooDoo.
Rubbish. It’s NOT easy. It’s hard to master a craft – it takes a lifetime. It’s a journey of many small steps. Companies flogging their gear under the spell of this nonsense ought to be ashamed of themselves. Why? Because we keep believing them and buying their latest gear and latest program, and of course we need it to be better (we do, don’t we?!) – but it doesn’t make us better and countless amateurs who passionately loved photography when they first picked up a camera are now giving up in frustration. Or worse, resigning themselves to being mediocre.
Just once I want to hear a manufacturer say, you know what, this new camera will make a really tough craft just a little easier – it’ll give you a fighting chance – but in the end it’s just that, a craft. It takes a lifetime to master and while that will make the impatient ones discouraged it ought to give the rest of us hope – this stuff isn’t cloaked in secrecy, it doesn’t take a secret handshake – it just takes time, and the kind of work you’d put in if you wanted to play the violin. No violin plays itself, no camera makes photographs by itself. All it takes is time, and in the meantime there’s the thrill of discovery and self-expression for the sake of it.
So if you’re discouraged and wonder why it’s so hard sometimes, know this: it’s tough – in varying degrees – for all of us, for anyone that wants to be good at something. We’re in this together. So settle in, you’ve got a long way to go but a long time to do it in. We all do. Now, let’s all take a breath, stop buying new gear and get to work learning our craft.
Repeat after me, Gear is Good. Vision is Better…
Go shoot something you love. Have a great weekend.
I had to laugh at Strobist’s 101 video. He said, “And if you do all this, then you too may be the recipient of the highest praise: You must have a really good camera!”
It drives me nuts when people enjoy my photos and conclude that it’s all the camera. Oh well…
Thank you for this reminder.
I think you’re right on the mark. But here’s the deal… Companies know full well that people are always looking for short cuts to excellence. Ever seen a TV ad promising physical fitness in just 4 minutes per day, if you buy their exercise-orama-gizmo? Camera companies are a little more sophisticated than that, but it’s the same principle at work: companies preying on people looking for short cuts.
Excellence requires commitment. And vision.
Good rant, David.
As I’ve already said–and you so eloquently state–if it was easy, everyone would to it. Robert Heinlein said it better: any sufficiently advance technology is indistinguisable from magic. You guys–the pro’s and amateurs–who have mastered the craft make it look so easy that the many of the rest of us will grab *any* tool/gadget that might give us the capability to think we’ve mastered the craft, if only for one photo . Must be time to buy another lens…’cuz I don’t havemake enough time to shoot .
Amen! Nuff said.
It is cloaked in secrecy!! It does take a secret handshake!! It’s just so secret you’ve not been told about it yet
Lol, j/k of course
Thanks David for providing that really interesting and helpful rant( i’m always a fan of your rants
). You always mention balancing ones artist/geek ratio, something I always need to work on. Being more inclined to be a geek, and am constantly falling prey to those sneaky camera manufacturers, do you have any suggestions on a good book, or anything, to help become a better photographer as far as gaining vision, learning design principals, etc?
Whoa, say who what? I just bought the Canon 2-1000MM lens with IS, F1.0 lens. I’m pretty much awesome
To true of words. But I still think we should keep the secret handshake, it’s just too cool!
Absolutely! Now when are you going to review that 85 f1.2?
[...] A Long Way To Go: A Rant [...]
[...] a camera in front of them, and pressing the shutter. David duChemin says that taking pictures is hard. And that we (armatures) expect great pictures by buying expensive gear, and don’t want or [...]
Thanks this puts the whole hobby and frustration into context!
Truly inspirational, and eye-opening. My husband read this, then forwarded it on for me to read. I am one of those enthusiastic amateurs who very nearly gave it all up in frustration…one who will take some great shots, only to pick them apart so badly afterwards that I end up feeling highly disappointed in myself, wondering if I’ll ever learn how to do this “right”. Thank you to my wonderful husband, and to you, for once again, reinforcing what I already knew – even the pros still have their moments, their shots, and their days of dispair and disappointment. And you are absolutely right; this should truly be a continuous journey…I need to stop looking to the final destination.
[...] August I published a short piece called A Long Way To Go: A Rant. It was a little like the antithesis of the fluffy pep talk. And oddly it resonated with many, many [...]
@Craig, it was Clarke who said that, actually.
Heinlein said: “There’s no such thing as a free lunch”, which is even more apropos…