Itz not the Kamera

I often get a question like, “which camera should I get?” or some sort of comment that I have a big camera so I must take better pictures than whomever. I always have to go through a long speech about how it just doesn’t matter. So I thought I would address it here…

1. Which camera should I get? Which is better, Nikon or Canon? It doesn’t matter; if one was clearly better than the other, we would all be using that one. Get any decent camera that you can afford and that gives you control.

2. I wanna upgrade to the latest blah blah camera. Is it worth it? Unfortunately the truth is it won’t make a difference for 90% of people.

Let me make this comparison: photography is like playing music. If you bought a $200,000 piano would your playing be on the level of Jon? No, you would have to study music theory, chords, scales, rhythm, etc. Practice for years and years. You can’t play music on a high level without that knowledge and experience. The same is true with photography. You have to learn the art & science, composition, light, exposure, strobe setups, etc. You can’t take high level photos without that knowledge and experience. If you fail to acquire this you’ll be throwing away your money or you will get frustrated and quit. The worse thing is thinking the camera upgrade will change everything, it won’t.

Yes the newest cameras do give us additional features which make certain tasks easier. But if you don’t learn how to use those features, well… you know.

The camera is stupid, it only does what you tell it to do just like a piano.

All of this venting does not mean that I am at the top of my game. Far from it, I have a long way to go. But I get those questions so frequently that I had to post this.