iPhone cameras take excellent photographs.
iPhone Pro cameras are point and shoot devices that are always available. That’s the best kind of camera, the one that is always with you. Yet, everything is configured for you with an iPhone. A single modern iPhone has more computing power than the computers used by NASA to put astronauts on the moon. They are amazing and one of the best cameras but using one does not improve your skill, if anything, smart phones make dumb people. Smart phone photography is easy. You are not a “photographer” if you use a iPhone any more than a person that drives a car is an F-1 racer!
Using a pro level film or DSLR camera on Auto mode does not make a professional photographer.
I own more equipment than a few professional photographers. This does not make me an expert. I am learning on my own, figuring it out by doing. This isn’t hang gliding, I don’t need to take lessons because I will die trying to teach myself photography. Knowing my equipment, understanding light and how to configure my equipment to capture images make me a photographer.
I’m well on my way but I’m still learning.
Photographers are nerdy types and I’m definitely becoming one. I’ve taken classes in high school that helped me with the fundamentals. I study it on my own time and have a small library of books on the subject by Ansel Adams and other professional photographers.
When I was making bamboo fly rods and administered a forum based web site that collected many of these skilled craftsman from around the world, I would have spirited conversations with these makers about wether making a fine rod was “art or a craft.” I called it art (at the time) and eventually was pulled into the craft camp.
Photography is like that.
Having mastery of a camera, lens and post production processing of images is a craft. You are creating a photograph, composing a scene, capturing it with a camera, manipulating the image for a final result. Knowledge of how to capture light and mastery over each aspect of the system is what separates a smart phone user from a professional photographer.
For those of you that are photographers, you will understand why I write these words.
I have the greatest respect for what you do.
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I started out using 35mm film and 8mm movie cameras in the 70’s. I switched to VHS cameras when they became affordable and made the move to digital cameras in the 2000’s when the quality became affordable. When I began photographing, I was learning how to create good pictures and when I switched to digital cameras, my education and skill slowed to a stop.
In the last year, I decided to “get back into” photography and bought a 35mm SLR and a couple of lenses. My journey has taken me through the basic developmental phenomena that photographers experience. I am exiting GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) now. So happy to recognize that. I have a great kit and am learning each aspect of it.
There is nothing like a quality manual focus lens. The Nikkor (Nikon) AIS F-mount lenses are beautifully made of aluminum and steel along with optical quality glass. The nomenclature is machined and filled with paint. Quality that is quite rare in anything made these days. They are analog, not digital. You focus them with your hand and eye.
I really like taking pictures.
I chose a quality digital camera that also serve as a movie camera. With my Nikon D780, I can shoot video and stills using my old and new F-mount lenses. I love the look, the feel and the quality of using the 40 year old lenses I have collected. I also learned that there are modern quiver killing lenses that are electronically controlled!
In comparison to the old manual focus Nikkor lenses made of metal, glass, rubber and enamel paint, current Nikkor lenses look cheap being housed in plastic but are absolute marvels of glass focal lens technology.
My 28-300mm VR (Vibration Reduction) lens is a technological masterpiece! Again, the computerized light metering and the quick motorized auto focus replaces the analog or manual thought that goes into my photography. I know what I’m doing with the equipment so I can move and control what I do at my own pace. I can shoot fast or slow depending on what I choose.
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The result you see here is a reflection I make on my iPad. Most of the time laying on the couch. I dream up an adventure, think about the equipment and technique I will use. When I get back, I import them into my iPad at home and create the pages you see here. Typically if I plan a photo trip, I’m back home that evening and I create the pages, editing and finished on that day!
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