interesting observation...

back alley

back alley

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sitting in my 'computer' room...at the computer...surrounded by gear of all sorts...batteries and chargers, headphones, iphone, flashlights, knives, speakers, cameras, lenses, bags...
on the wall in front of me are 4 photographs, in frames and hanging...when i get tired i put my head back and just stare...sometimes at the 4 images...they are rejects from the 'good' walls where my 'better' images hang for my world to view.
they aren't bad per say but they are special to me.
to my right is a shot in black and white of the handball park in nyc that i used to hang out at...as a kid. i took it years later as a young adult visiting my home town.
further right is a colour shot of 2 kids throwing a frisbee...it's a good action type shot, caught a good moment...to the left of my direct view is a shot of a knife embedded into a wood table, a coffee cup and a magazine, shot while camping many, many eyars ago...far right a steamed up window with a smudged space that looks like a gun shape.

these 4 shots represent different times and aspects of my life...city, country, places i've lived or loved...in short they represent some very precious memories...

funny thing...i never think about the gear that was used to shoot them.
 
What I shoot my images with, or have done so for years only matter at the time of shooting (or before it) ... afterwards, it is a moment captured in time ... preserved. It is only what was captured and what it meant to me that matters ... not the gear it was captured with.

Of course, that doesn't dissuade me from lusting over gear and discussing it all the time for some reason :/
 
The passage of time adds perspective I always think ... one no longer cares as much about the technical details of photos from the 70's, and they didn't matter that much anyway at f8
 
I don't obsess over gear used to take a photo, but like above, am ready to discuss it at the drop of a hat.

There have been times when I thought of a photo I wanted to take with certain gear; ultra-wide lens, or 6x7 or 4x5.

No matter the above, I am a bit of a hoarder, but that I guess is a separate part of my brain. I don't much associate a photo with the gear unless I 'saw' the photo with certain gear such as wide angle.
 
back alley said:
funny thing...i never think about the gear that was used to shoot them.
Click to expand...

Yes, this is true. Never thougth of it that way. On purpose I do not keep track of which camera / lens made which photos. Once you are dealing with the photo, it no longer matters (to me at least). However, when I'm out photographing... I'm a stickler for ergonomics and am very picky. It's funny how images can work on so many different levels. There are times when I use a "bad" photo because it works. ;)

The funny thing about GAS is that I have it always, but am not interested in trying many things these days... so I keep looking around, thinking I want something, but then ultimately talking myself out of buying (due to my track record of buying and selling).
 
Nice post - made me think of the "The Times of your Life" Kodak TV commercials from the 70's.
 
thanks for the kind comments...i sometimes have to live with melancholia for brief periods and it makes me much more reflective...i used to be embarrassed about having/showing a softer side but age removes such things, for me at least.
 
only when a photo is printed
it becomes a thing on its own
independent of gear
achieving a state of finality
of full existence

before that
it is inside a negative
or computer
a part of the gear
beholden to gear
the potential of an image
waiting inside a tool
to shed its exif
to become its positive self
to be full born
 
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