Day 6 - In My Bag

I got my first real camera from my grandparents’ neighbor. it was a canon film camera with a couple of lenses in a dingy bag, and I treasured it. I had absolutely no idea what I was doing. I asked my grandpa how to use it because he was the only person I knew who was into cameras, and he started speaking in an absolutely foreign language to me. All of these new words made me realize that there existed, outside of my tiny sphere, an entire universe of knowledge that I was utterly unaware of: Aperture, f stops, ISO, shutter speeds, I just didn’t even know where to start. But I read every piece of camera literature I could, trying to get to a point where I knew what any of that meant.

I guess there’s a pinpoint for most obsessions and that was mine. I absolutely love camera physics. I spend an embarrassing amount of time in the solitude of my thoughts calculating ideal camera settings for imaginary situations. But as much as I love the science of photography, the thing I love the most is that no one is the best at it. Go ahead and google it. Who is the best photographer? It is all absolutely pure preference. A picture is rarely ever good because it was composed by a master of camera knowledge using every photography rule and painstakingly planned. This brings me a comfort I can’t really express. Maybe it’s that I can enjoy this purely for the process of it? I don’t have to worry if what I am making is up to par with someone else’s? Yeah, maybe that’s it. I just like that I can take a picture, and if I like it, that is all that matters.

I have since then bought and sold 8 camera bodies(Canon AE-1, Nikon D3100, Sony a6000, Sony a6300, Sony a7ii, Sony a7iii, Sony a7rIV, Sony A1). The amount of lenses that I have owned and let go I honestly can’t remember. A lot. Refinement and experimentation are things that make me happy, and I enjoy the journey of gear as much as the photographic experience. In retrospect, do you need really nice stuff? Absolutely not, and not just concerning photography. A great guitarist is great on a beginner guitar, a mediocre guitarist is only mediocre at best on a mastermade instrument. What you need is the desire to make something and the drive to just do it. And yummy food. You need that too.

Left pillar top to bottom: Tamron 70-180 f/2.8, Sony Zeiss 55mm f/1.8, Tamron 28-200 f/2.8-5.6, Sony 35mm f/1.4
Right pillar top to bottom: Sony 90mm Macro f/2.8, Sony 24mm f/1.4, Zeiss Loxia 35mm f/2, Sigma 85mm f/1.4, Samsung s21 Ultra
Middle Guts: He-4xx Linear Headphones, Giotto Blower, ZT0770Cf knife, Peak Design Tripod, Sony a1, CFExpress type b cards, Peak Design camera capture, Z batteries, Roav Glasses, ONA Prince bag.