We all know that it’s not what you use but the way that you use it! but many of us have a few favourite bits of kit that we wouldn’t like to part with in a hurry.
These are 2 of mine:-
My Sigma EX 70-200 mm f/2.8 lens. It’s the sharpest zoom lens I’ve seen (experts say the Canon version is slightly better but who cares?) and it’s so heavy that it’s very difficult to get camera shake whilst using it, especially now that I have anti-shake on my camera sensor. It’s great for candid shots with soft blurry backgrounds and has a lovely creamy bokeh….I was stopped in the street recently and asked if it was a lens or a machine gun…
My flash diffuser…it works rather like the Gary Fong one, but John carved it out of a Sainsbury’s coconut shampoo bottle for me….99 pence was all it cost….I went back to Sainsbury’s the other day to get another but they’ve changed the design of the bottles now, so eat your heart out…mine could be the only version ever.
What’s your favourite kit?
I guess my longest standing bit of favourite kit would have to be my old monopod a rescued leg from an old manfrotto light stand its seen tripods come and go over the years – its aluminum nice and light and quite strong also makes a nice defensive weapon if its ever needed – lens wise I have always leaned towards wide angles at the moment I have a 14 to 24 zoom which is nearly always on the body so I guess that qualifies its also quite sharp as most wides are – on my wish list would be a long lens for nature and a tilt and shift for panoramas and close up DOF I also have plenty of home made gizmos but they mostly tend to live in the bottom of the bag and get forgotten – about thirty years ago at the Stalybridge club we use to have an evening called open your bag where we all emptied the contents of our bags and it was a laugh a minute some of the stuff you would never believe talk about woman and their handbags it was not in it
How many times have you looked at a picture and said ” Its O k BUT look at the equipment or look at the lens !!!!! I can not afford them !!
I remember when I first started in photography I was told to use my eyes and see the picture I was taking I had a HELENA 35 M/M camera and relied on Gratispool to develope my slides As we had no room for a darkroom !
Now we all (well nearly )have gone digital and have some kind of editing equipment !!
So now look at a picture and say Its O K BUT how can I MAKE ONE AS GOOD or EVEN BETTER
What I am trying to say its not the equipment ( although it helps )Its your skill and how you use it !!!!
So the best piece of equipment we all have is our EYES !!!
Now you can all pull what I have said to bits !!!!
BUT REMEMBER YOU USED YOUR EYES TO SEE MY POINT OF VIEW
Jeff
Hi Jeff
You’ll probably remember my opening statement on the topic: “We all know that it’s not what you use but the way that you use it!” so you see I heartily agree with your comments.
There is plenty of freedom for us to use what we see and interpret that in the pictures that we take…in fact it’s what makes each of us different from everyone else.
Type of camera, lenses etc can only ever be the tools that help us to achieve our goals.
Chris