I Come In Peace… But I Must Admit Gear Is Not The Main Thing.

I Come In Peace… But I Must Admit Gear Is Not The Main Thing.

Why am I saying this?

Glad I imagined you asked.

1. I have an exhibition coming up. By default, one would want to choose the best examples of your own work.
2. I have prattled on about full frame being my personal preference in this space for the last few years.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Eric L. Woods (@ewoodsphoto)

Welp…

• Of the six images I chose to display four were taken with crop sensor cameras.
  • Two with APS-C brand that no longer exists. <psst.. Samsung.>
    • Both of the ones in the Instagram post above.
  • Two with MFT.
• Further on the lens front… the two remaining full frame images were taken with an inexpensive adapted lens.
  • Not a brand name, a native third party, or even a fancy pants brand name lens. The lens I call the knock-off-ti-lux for Pete’s sake.

So.. All this debating and bickering about brand names, sensor size, etc. so on and so forth. Meaningless. As it pertains to producing a pleasing image anyway. For most all what mattered most was portability, not specs or features.

Portable does bring two benefits.

1. A camera bag or cameras on a wriststrap or neckstrap are not an option when we are singing.
   • Our standard uniform always consists of black dress slacks.
   • The best camera is one that can fit in a front pocket.
2. A small camera keeps the candid, unposed energy I am looking to capture.

In fact, I will again admit something that I have stated in this space before. Most of my all time favorite images were taken with the first system I ever owned. MFT.

My favorite 100 Men In Black image in this upcoming exhibit was taken with an APS-C camera and lens made by a company that does not even make cameras anymore.

A fantastic pairing.

Now do not get me wrong.

I am not saying this is a pairing I need,

I have moved on.

Because… this works both ways.

I do not need this camera and lens. The portability helps. But there are a lot of portable cameras.

The gear you choose does not matter most.

What I am still continually trying to plug into is the energy I had when taking these images above.

That is what matters most.

Not the camera gear.

For years I wondered why I kept switching gear. Had thought it was for the sake of trying something new. Had thought it was possibly some pursuit of the “perfect” camera gear for me, which I now readily admit does not exist based on my experiences. None of those were it.

I know this now because the main thing this gear churn journey has taught me is that any number of camera brands, sensor sizes, body and lens sizes, specs, etc. will do. What I have actually been pursuing is…

Inspiration.

Different gear got me out the door.

Different gear got me to park and get out of the car.

Different gear got me to go to places I may not have gone.

Different gear had me capturing images I may not have gotten otherwise.

But in most cases, any gear could have been used.

What made me realize this is my gear churn odyssey ending. Outside of the rare new announcement that is actually a new thing I have been there and done that.

• I have already tried it.
• I have already tried something like it.
• It is so insanely expensive that I cannot even consider it.

Please notice I did not say weird. Some of my favorites are odd ducks and I like to reward any company that does something outside of the norm.

So that leaves me with a question.

What will inspire me now that the gear churn has ended?

Fortunately, I have already found my answer. The very realization that I have been using gear churn as an inspirational crutch has at the same time solved the riddle. How about this…

Choose a place, old or new.

Choose some manner of image capturing device.

Go.

I have no regrets about the gear churn. It was great fun. But now it is time to focus on the practice of capturing images rather than the tools used.

I will still call out the gear used. But I will also mention that gear is not the main thing. The most important thing is getting out there and capturing images.

And here is where I will close for now.

Happy capturing.

-ELW