The most essential piece of gear in photography

I’ll start by saying that I used to hang out with avid fishermen, some were very much into top-quality equipment. I used to be an avid camper, having camped out sleeping under the stars, in tents, and modern heated/air-conditioned camping trailers complete with microwaves, satellite television, and most all our modern conveniences. What does this all have to do with photography? Let’s think about the fishing poles in the featured photograph. Without the fisherman, the fishing poles are useless in catching a fish making the fisherman the most essential piece of fishing equipment. As a child, I was able to catch my limit of fish using rudimentary fishing poles, which were nothing more than a stick with a fishing line and a hook.

Just like the fishing poles, camera gear doesn’t take photographs without a photographer. The photographer decides where to set up the gear, and how to operate the gear. I know we can have cameras that can snap pictures automatically but it still takes a person to set them up. Even with that, does it create works of art?

We now have A.I. which is making strives in creating. Type in a few descriptive words and a computer can generate an image. Yet we are still depending upon a bit of human interaction to get the machine started.

It doesn’t always require top-notch gear to capture fantastic images. It takes a top-notch photographer to take top-notch photographs. Build your skills as a photographer first and then your gear to meet your skills.