confessions of an ex-gear addict

When gear becomes validation
Olivier the Photographer. It rimes so it must be true. I am photographer! What did I have to show for it? Cameras. There’s only two ways you can validate yourself as a photographer, either by pursuing your intent or hide behind cameras. I chose the later option. The better the camera, the better pillar it became for me to hide behind.

Buying more and more as insecurity
I then realized what was happening, I was insecure in my photography so I was finding it in cameras. When you get a new camera you feel like you can take on Eugene Smith or something. But after the high, I needed my next fix to hide my insecurities. That’s why I could never have enough cameras, I needed more and more stuff to hide behind, to validate myself. I needed to look at a camera and say “Don’t worry man, you’re a photographer, you have a camera, you’re a photographer……” It was of course rooted in my insecurities. Now I am secure in my own photography because I know my intent and work towards it, I’m getting better everyday. I don’t need a camera to feel secure, because I now trust myself to actually deliver.
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Taking refuge in a great armory of cameras and lenses is a security blanket. It provides the photographer with a sense of assurance and security*.

Inexperienced photographers tend to get a case of "National Geographic Syndrome." They see a photo of a NGS photographer in Borneo with twenty Pelican cases full of cameras and lenses and get the mistaken idea that this is the way to be a great and successful photographer: Do what the NGS photographers do.

Some photographers get stuck in this phase, never pushing themselves to outgrow it, to hone their photographic skills and vision or learn, grow, evolve and progress as a photographer.

Some photographers eventually discover that vision is more important than gear. They eventually realize that the more gear they drag around with them, the less they actually make images. They finally learn an important lesson - that it's better to carry one camera, one lens and ten rolls of film for a day of shooting than it is to carry one camera, one roll of film and ten lenses.

I think most people go through some version of this phase during their journey as a photographer. I know I did. Fortunately, I was able to find my way out of the quicksand of GAS.

Do some honest reflection. Ask yourself what kind of photography you love doing. Get the cameras and lenses that you need for that genre of photography. A wildlife photographer or a photographer who shoots NFL football games needs a 600mm f/4 lens. A documentary or street photographer does not. If you love to photograph wildflowers and insects, you need a 1:1 capable macro lens like Nikon's 200mm f/4 micro. If you like to photograph weddings and events, you don't need that lens. If you love to photograph hawks, eagles and other birds, don't spend your money on a Leica MP and a 35mm Summicron - get the 600mm f/4.

In other words, shop and spend wisely. Learn to use the gear you do need to a very high level of proficiency. The vast majority of us do not have unlimited funds to spend on cameras and lenses. We do not have the resources of Vanity Fair or Vogue, who can drop $50,000 on a comprehensive Leica S2 kit without batting an eye.

Just some food for thought...





*FALSE security, that is.
 
I like his honesty and some of his advice, especially "align yourself with your intent to achieve happiness". HCB used one Leica and one 50mm lens. Why do I need more than that?
 
I think the cure is pretty simple, spend your money on film instead of cameras and lenses - take pictures, be productive. That's that.
 
tunalegs said:
I think the cure is pretty simple, spend your money on film instead of cameras and lenses - take pictures, be productive. That's that.
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Yes, film, processing and prints, latter helps also in case of digital obsession. And for both best pill is moving around, which can get costly thus sucking funds away from gear madness. Well, there's another obsession with traveling so you can't be really sure but at least it gives a chance :D
 
I also liked the articles and I thought they were fairly decently written considering the subject matter.

I think he needs to consider the way he presents some of his photographs though - as there's a consistent take-it-to-11-boss method of processing them that just grates on my eyes. This kind of thing can't carry photography.
 
Very few photographers have the strength of purpose and vision, to go on a world tour with one camera and lens. HCB was close!
Today it's battery chargers, spare batteries, memory drives and cards with a whole fleet of cameras and lenses.
i am guilty as charged..
 
leicapixie said:
Very few photographers have the strength of purpose and vision, to go on a world tour with one camera and lens. HCB was close!
Today it's battery chargers, spare batteries, memory drives and cards with a whole fleet of cameras and lenses.
i am guilty as charged..
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I would not advocate taking that austere of an approach in terms of camera gear. That having been said, a wide angle, a normal lens and a short tele backed up by a pair of bodies (in case your primary body breaks) and film is all a person actually needs in terms of cameras and lenses.

I remember reading that Steve McCurry - the National Geograhic photographer who created one of the most famous images of all time ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afghan_Girl ) carried just two camera bodies and four lenses (24mm, 35mm, 50mm and 105mm if memory serves me) in a Domke F2 when he traveled the globe shooting for NGS (and a butt-load of Kodachrome 64, of course).

When I read that, it was a real eye opener. It definitely caused me to rethink this GAS thing.
 
That was a very interested blog. Makes me feel a little guilty as well knowing that it could be me he is writing about. Have lately started to think I need to pair down my camera collection as well and have started that process. Good to see I am not alone:)
 
I guess the first thing I need to do is admit I have a problem...

Great article. Thanks for posting. It just might save me some frog pelts.
 
I guess the GAS thing means different things to different people.

To some, it means a bagful of gear.

To others, it means a shelf(s) full of gear.

To others yet, it means a different kit for every occasion.

It's a cycle, and I've gone down it, guilty as charged. We're discussing gear, in a gear oriented forum, sponsored by people who sell gear, and frequented by people who are passionate about gear. Should we not have this longing to find the perfect tool, people like Ken Rockwell would not be able to feed their families with gear-centric websites, and whole communities that so much contribute to the craft as a whole, may not be so tightly bound.

Regardless of the drive, the vision, the passion of it all, we need gear to make it happen, so it's only natural - like in any other field - that we are passionate about our OWN gear. Our interest for the gear - aside from the obvious involvement with the craft - is a common denominator.

Painters speak of bristles, paints, and easels, guitarists of picks, necks, and pickups. Dancers of shoes, bandaids, and spandex.

The problem arises, as many have pointed out, when this search begins to thwart progress. But that's really only one side of a double edged sword. The whole process can also be seen as a step in the growth of the photographer, and it's entirely understandable that this process affect different shooters in different ways.

Can you imagine a photographer that by the sheer quantity of his tools can achieve his own identity through varied mediums, his own results? The inverse is also very much true, one lens, one camera, one film...many have produced great work following both methodologies.

When I start counting how many times I've sold perfectly functional and adequate gear, just to get more functional, but different, adequate gear, it's really an eye opener. The CLA's, the repairs, the duds, the drops, the scratches, the investments, the losses.... the more I think about it, the more I realize that the time I worry about this, is the time I'm not out shooting.

In regards to the author's assertion of hiding behind gear to somehow shadow any perceived inadequacies...well, the only thing I can suggest is go out and shoot more.

But going out and shooting is only half of it.

Part of my learning process came from teachers, from books, from photographs, from discussions, from engaging with subjects, and god knows, on countless occasions I've found myself in a dark hole with no muse to light the way.

This is when others have helped.

There's a guy, some may have already heard of him, David DuChemin, who's writing was very involving and inspirational during my first few years of shooting. He runs a website with a few other photographers called Craft and Vision.

I only bring this up because the e-books I read had direct impact on how I approached my subject, how I thought of composition, and ultimately what and why I shot.

Of course, part of it comes from within, that's what personal vision is all about isn't it? But hearing reassuring words from other professionals, people who have been at it for decades, can be an incredibly fruitful experience, you just have to be open to it.

If an opportunity comes to sit with a mentor, take it, it's important to hear about your work from someone else's perspective.

If you find yourself worrying too much about your next gear, get your hands on your favorite, the one that makes you want to go out and shoot, and shoot.

And if someday you can't get your camera out of your bag, or you can't trip the shutter, or all your pictures come out mediocre, and you don't feel good about yourself, read a good book, look at work from someone you admire, listen to your favorite album and keep your head up.

It's all part of the process.
 
Nice blog, thanks for posting.

However, concluding that less gear will in any way improve your photography, is just as wrong as "hiding behind cameras".

Liking (and even hoarding) gear, and the amount of cameras you have is completely independent of your photographic output. There is no correlation other than the possible overlap in time, passion and money.

Hcb owned many lenses and always traveled with at least two bodies. Saying anything else is romanticising him.

In the end, spending time online, for instance, can hurt your photography much more than - say - owning 50 leicas.

Ask a good cook how many knives he has and has tried, and how many he really needs ...

Roland.
 
ferider said:
Ask a good cook how many knives he has and has tried, and how many he really needs ...
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Ask four cooks and get five different answers. As with anything involving "gear" there are "needs" and "wants" and "occasionally usefuls" and "nice to haves".

While I'm no great chef, I am a decently functional cook and I know from real-world use that 95%+ of the time I use four knives:
  1. A largeish (20cm), broad, "chef's knife" and something to keep it sharp. This gets most of the work so it's worthwhile spending a bit to get a decent one (but there's no need to go overboard).
  2. A bread knife (I get cheap ones and replace 'em as the serrations go).
  3. A longish (20cm) knife with a hollow-ground blade of the cheap-as-chips variety.
  4. A shortish "utility knife" (10cm) - also generally cheap-as-chips.
Others would no doubt have a different list.

I'm away from home at the moment, and I'm getting by in the kitchen with exactly that set of knives, all picked up since arriving here (since you can't travel with knives any more), and I'm cooking quite nicely, thank you. I'll probably buy a set of kitchen shears as well, but I haven't yet been fussed enough to get them.

However, at home I have many more knives than that. Cleavers and boning knives, fileting knives and slicers and who-knows-what, with multiples of some knives. They aren't strictly necessary, as such, but at home in my own kitchen it is nice to have exactly the right tool for the task readily to hand. All do get used, just not nearly as frequently as the basic workhorse tools I listed earlier. Having them available makes my work in the kitchen more efficient, more effective and more pleasant.

I haven't bought a knife in years (aside from those recently acquired for here). But nor am I obsessing about what knives I "need" versus what I "want" nor planning to sell off knives which haven't been used in 6 months or some other arbitrary period. I'm not worrying myself sick about whether I really "need" that utility knife when, surely, I could get by using one of the others in it's place. Could I sell off that bread knife if I bought only sliced bread?

Perhaps being overly minimalist is, in it's own way, just as "gear obsessed" as buying too much stuff. It's just a thought.

...Mike
 
An excellent article.

I've long been one who buys what works for the current assignment and then unloads it to get what's right for the next one. This forum has been a big help in figuring out what is that right bit of kit as well as being a source of endless bits of kit I want but don't really need.

For example:

CL
CLE
ZI
Hexar RF (boy did I get burned on that)
 
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