What Will I Do, I Don’t Have The Latest Camera?

What Will I Do? I Don’t Have The Latest Camera?

Technology in cameras is changing all the time. Each year and sometimes, every so many months , a new camera is released.It can be very hard to keep up with all the advancements in this area. When this happens, we are seduced through advertising that you need this upgrade.The upgrades are enticing and it is like, each of the camera manufactures, just add  one extra features that is a ‘ Must Have” and although we have just bought a new camera 18 months ago. We are being convinced that we need to trade the old one that may be only 12 months old or 18 months old for the improved model.

One of the biggest improvements in the technology is the auto focus systems and eye tracking. There is no doubt that these additions to the humble camera have made things so much easier for people, particularly for sports and wildlife photographers. These improvements do come at a cost.

Not everyone is in a position to be able to make this upgrade. So is all lost that you can’t see a way to make this upgrade? Is it the end of your photography that you can’t make this new purchase.(Keep in mind if you live in Australia, we pay almost double to our USA counterparts. Why this is, remains a mystery to me.)

I think with the emergence of social media and constant reviews on cameras etc, we have become very spoilt for choice and in some ways, it appears to me that some of the reviewers out there have become very spoilt and in some cases ungrateful in what they talk about. I’m always amused when I hear these people say, ‘Oh I think they should have added this …. or that …..” Really?

Many of present generation have no idea of what it was like in the pre  technological boom time. Back in the day you had to learn your craft extremely well as it was just you and your camera which were nothing like the cameras of today.

Am I living in the past? Of course not, my point in all of this is that you can still achieve outstanding pictures with what you have. All of the pictures that you see were taken in 2016 from a  boat of the coast of Namibia with a 7d mark 2 and100-400 5.6lens.There  was  no  eye detection  and  tracking.Does  that  technology  make   things  easier?Yes  it  does  but  is  essential  to have  to  capture  life  pictures?  No  it  is  not.

The key in taking better pictures is never in the camera but rather in the person behind the camera knowing their craft. Knowing their camera, knowing how it works, knowing every part of it and to know it inside and out. If you can do that,  you’ll be able to take the pictures that you have always wanted to.

Like most it would be nice to have the latest and greatest but do you need it to still take outstanding images and the answer is no. It may help you get some tricky shots that you may not be other wise to get but it is never a game changer to embrace it if you can’t afford it. You can still take great pictures with the gear that you have always had. Don’t fall into the trap that your photography is rendered useless if you don’t have the latest and greatest.

Did you know that they took outstanding sports shots and wildlife shots in the 50’s, 60’s, 70’s etc

The best way to learn photography is to know your gear extremely well and get out there and keep taking pictures. Remember the mistakes that we make in the pictures that we take, are not really negative mistakes but rather positive mistakes .If you learn by them, every mistake we make, we can always learn by them.When we learn by them, we grow as a photographer.

Photography is always changing and given the way it is going, one would think that there is not a great deal with what they can keep on doing, but then again, they most likely thought the same thing back in the day. Who knows what changes lay ahead but always know, if you know your craft well, know the essentials of photography, then you’ll always take rewarding pictures. The camera never takes the outstanding picture, but rather the photographer behind the camera. If you place the camera on the table, leave it on your tripod, in your car etc, its not going to move, its not going to see the shot before hand, it’s not going to take the picture.Common sense right?

We are so so so spoilt today with the choice of cameras, with the technology behind each camera but nothing can replace the person behind the camera with their knowledge:)