I wandered about in the very sunny St. Jacobs Market on Saturday, thinking about what to shoot, and I noticed lots of cameras and many of them were larger than phones. I only captured a dozen or so here. It got me thinking about the disposition of all these high resolution images. Mine go here, on makebright. That’s how I maintain a discipline to keep shooting. But what of all these others? Maybe they go to their own blogs. Maybe to facebook. Maybe dropbox’d to relatives. Maybe viewed once and forgotten. I often ask photographers what they do with their work. About half the time, the answer is: “nothing”.
Something even more interesting to muse about is the social reaction I often get when I shoot photographers shooting something else. Meta photography. It seems that photographers are unaccustomed to being photographed themselves, and it leads to a lot of strange looks in my direction. Now that is very interesting to me. Something worth exploring further.
Only other Nikon shooter of the day. Hey brother!
Sometimes I want to offer advice, but I don’t.
I’m always curious to see what new gear is out on the street. My Nikon D3’s are 7 year old rigs, so ancient by tech standards. But they’re full-frame bodies, perform very well in low light, have a tonne of immediately accessible physical control buttons and dials, and the magnesium chassis is pretty tough. I avoid religious debates on camera manufacturers and technologies. The old adage aligns with my experience: the best camera is the one you have in your hands.
Never discount phones as capable cameras. Sure, they don’t have the optics of your DSLR, but they are always in your pocket and have the ability to immediately send the photo to the world.
If I may offer one small tip to phone photogs: you’ll get consistently better results…
if you use two hands on the phone to steady it when you’re shooting. And tuck your elbows to your abs. A steady phone produces sharper photos.
And that’s true of any camera.
Snazzy strap.
Happy shooting.
DW