Equipment-related mind blockade

[RezaLoghme]

Owning the best cameras in the world can have a flip side - Equipment-related mind blockade (ERMD). What if your photographic output cannot keep up with the quality of your equipment? So better don't start trying.

 

[albada]

I think that phenomenon is also called GAS -- Gotta Acquire Stuff.

 

[RezaLoghme]

It is post acquiring gear - now the best camera in the world is here, vot to do vith it.

 

[Dali]

I don't see how you can compare the quality of your camera and the quality of your pictures. The fact that a camera is considered (by who?) as the best in the world has little to do with photography.

 

[RezaLoghme]

I fully agree.

 

[loccdor]

Maybe better to judge yourself by how far you've come from your previous work. You can always find a more skilled or talented photographer than yourself. And they will be able to do it with cheaper gear than you. Celebrate and enjoy their pictures, while realizing that you have something different than them to offer.

On the topic of expensive gear - it would make me nervous to travel with it. If money was endless, I guess I wouldn't care. Unless something big changes in my life, it's not a problem I will ever have.

 

[Jim Jones]

I bought my first Leica in 1953, and have used them and other good cameras since then. Usually that grade of equipment has made little improvement in the quality of my photographs. For amateurs like me it is easier and much less expensive to be satisfied to do the best with the equipment I already have than to expect a big investment in gear to insure a similar improvement in photographs. More than ever before, acquiring endless knowledge of photography from the internet costs little or nothing. Of course one can enroll in college to study photography. Been there, done that. The internet saves much time and money. Phototrio is today's university, with many experienced instructors willing to share one-on-one teaching with learners. Go for it!

 

[xkaes]

There certainly is no shortage of people who buy the most expensive camera that they can afford, only to later realize that gear does not make them a great photographer. Not even a half-decent one.

 

[Saganich]

LOL possibly. Most of the prints I make these days aren't from negatives but more like photocollage with light..no camera needed...creativity blooms from being engaged and amused with your skills; the equipment or process is secondary.

 

[cliveh]

The gear aspect in film photography drifts into insignificance with the advent of digital. It was at this point that marketeers made everything about gear and centred all image making around what you have in terms of hardware and software. Looking seems to have been overlooked.

 

[Kodachromeguy]

There certainly is no shortage of people who buy the most expensive camera that they can afford, only to later realize that gear does not make them a great photographer. Not even a half-decent one.

I am not sure that many of these equipment strivers ever acknowledge that they are not the world's best photographers. After all, the have the best "pro" equipment.

 

[RezaLoghme]

Good photogs just need a pinhole camera

 

[xkaes]

I am not sure that many of these equipment strivers ever acknowledge that they are not the world's best photographers. After all, the have the best "pro" equipment.

You're right. There are many that suffer from photographic cognitive dissonance.

 

[TomR55]

For decades the technology industry has steadily propagated the false equivalence between the tool(s) chosen and the aesthetic quality of what’s produced. No need to spend valuable time and effort to develop a particular skill or profession, just buy (or rent) the latest and greatest technology (tool) that will magically deliver the results you crave. At its base, this line of reasoning boils down to what one lacks in vision, talent and effort can be fixed by purchasing the latest thing.

Of course, we all need working and dependable tools. And, depending upon one’s particular circumstances, sophisticated tools might be essential to the task. But so much of what the technology industry calls “innovation” these last decades has really amounted to incremental enhancements to existing models. This is done because it generates a steady flow of capital for the manufacturer and an endless cycle of buy and replace for the consumer.

 

[Kino]

Owning the best cameras in the world can have a flip side - Equipment-related mind blockade (ERMD). What if your photographic output cannot keep up with the quality of your equipment? So better don't start trying.

That's actually CBH Syndrome (Cart before the Horse).

 

[RalphLambrecht]

I think that phenomenon is also called GAS -- Gotta Acquire Stuff.

aka Sable (stuff acquired beyond life expectancy)

 

[Milpool]

So, I guess the equipment can't win. Your photography sucks either because the equipment isn't good enough, or (now it seems) because the equipment is too good. Either way though, clearly it's the equipment.

 

[mshchem]

Having a bunch of cameras is easier than collecting freaking old Fiats etc. That's endless, unless you are rich!

 

[Nicholas Lindan]

So, I guess the equipment can't win. Your photography sucks either because the equipment isn't good enough, or (now it seems) because the equipment is too good. Either way though, clearly it's the equipment.

Oh, sometimes its the developer - and off you go on a quest for the best. Maybe the suckage is due to using, or not using, a stop bath. Maybe it is using the wrong fixer for the wrong time at the wrong temperature.

You surely feel that if you get all of it right then your photography will stop sucking.

Funny, when your prints do finally stop sucking because you have finally developed some vision and some skill you credit the improvement to Windyditch P45a-Q developer, which you just happened to be using at the time. And so out you go, proselytizing for this miracle compound and the agitation schedule you use with it.

When my photography finally consistently satisfied me I was using Tech Pan. If you want to be bored for hours on end by someone waxing lyrical over this film then come on over to my place.

The equipment I was using at the time I continue to use. And if anyone asks for a recommendation for a lens, why of course I recommend the old lenses I have nestled in my gadget bag. When I see someone recommending something different I think to myself - "Why does this cretin think he knows anything about lenses??"

 

[MTGseattle]

Allow me to interject my recent experience. I've always really enjoyed photography as an art form. I've owned a few "nice" cameras over the years, and I've also had long periods of time where I made no images that would garner no loftier term than snapshot.
I decided to jump up to 8x10. I wanted my process in the field to be somewhat slow, deliberate and intentional. I got an old Burke and James commercial view for cheap. fast-forward 2 years, and I now have a Canham 8x10 and I never even made an image with the Burke and James. The only way the Canham will make me a better photographer is if I get out and use it.
Here's the rub; Sometimes I pack all of the necessary kit and head out with 8x10 only to discover that a smaller format would have suited my mood and the environment much better. I then get grumpy and tend to find mediocre scenes just to spite my inner self and justify the "waste" of film as learning. I admit to some struggle in figuring out with focal length seems "natural" to me on 8x10. I will likely always suffer from some sort of lens g.a.s. but the camera side is sorted.

I may spend way too much time reading about other photographers and looking at photography, but one thing continues to thread its way through all of the fluff. The camera you actually get out and use regularly is the one that makes you better.

 

[FinalFigment]

Also interjecting here. I had definitely had that mindset of a blockade with my equipment for so long, especially while attending university. Photography for while had become a thing I did alongside other photographers for a good few years and that “gear gap” was really exacerbated during the pandemic. Watching other people just be able to shoot more and more efficiently was frustrating the lense selections they had access too opened up way more options that I just didn’t feel like I have. I felt like I needed to invest so much of my money into gear.

I spent far too much time looking for more heat to use before fully utilizing what I had and shooting for the sake of shooting. Looking back on it it’s probably the lack of gear that forces a lot of photographers to be more creative in the first place

 

[loccdor]

I spent far too much time looking for more heat to use before fully utilizing what I had and shooting for the sake of shooting. Looking back on it it’s probably the lack of gear that forces a lot of photographers to be more creative in the first place

Good observation. People say the same thing about music and to some degree it's true. Upgrading to a top of the line instrument won't make you a better musician. Upgrading from a bottom-of-the-line instrument will sometimes be a critical step though. In the end, what is mainly improving you is experience and practice.

 

[FinalFigment]

Good observation. People say the same thing about music and to some degree it's true. Upgrading to a top of the line instrument won't make you a better musician. Upgrading from a bottom-of-the-line instrument will sometimes be a critical step though. In the end, what is mainly improving you is experience and practice.

100% so some experience and practice but it’s great that you note that upgrading can be crucial. Not every tool you have is gonna help you progress.

 

[MTGseattle]

There is definitely an "upgrade" precedent in most artistic pursuits, but they usually occur incrementally as one's skills increase. I played the trumpet for 7 years. I was supposed to upgrade to a different mouthpiece at minimum (whole different horn if budget had allowed).
Starting an endeavor with the "best" equipment might help with the basic interaction between user and equipment, but boy, buying a $5k guitar to learn guitar and then not enjoying it? That would be a huge disappointment.

 

[Sirius Glass]

When one has the best quality camera equipment they can afford, they can only blame themselves if the quality of the photographs is poor.