Seeing Well

My first camera was a Pentax K1000 35mm SLR -- the camera so many of us first used to explore f stops and asa's and shutter speeds. I had a small dark room. I had lots of desire to capture what I'd always been seeing. But I never really stuck with it long enough to get anywhere and by my 20's no longer owned a camera anymore. Over the years, I did some painting and drawing, took some design classes and discovered little ways to keep discovering and making art. But it wasn't until 2006 that I once again owned a camera, this time a small digital point and shoot, that I carried everywhere for a year.

That year, I learned that being a photographer is more about seeing well than it is having good equipment. After a year of using a point and shoot, I was convinced that quality equipment is essential to take the photos to another level. Yet the best equipment in the universe won't help if you can't see well in the first place.

By seeing well, I mean an ability to compose the photo elements and to identify the colors, textures, forms, light, focus, and depth of field that highlight the "message" of the photo. Even with a simple point and shoot I was able to use those variables to help create satisfying photos (the textile shot I posted in my last entry was taken with that point and shoot).

In 2007, I got my beloved Nikon D80 with an 18 - 55 mm lens. All of sudden, my world opened up as I was able to exert more control over the photographic elements. The biggest change was ease in changing the Depth of Field which allowed me to decide what I wanted the viewer to focus their eye on. The 18 - 55 mm lens is versatile and I could move from relatively wide angle landscape to tighter close-ups. Though not technically a "macro" lens, I was able to get fairly tight on a subject and would sometimes crop photos to bring it closer.

I still had a hunger though to really go deep inside things visually. So this year I got the Nikkor 105mm VR macro lens. I am finally able to take photos like I see them in my head! I will have to spend more time in another entry talking about what it feels like to photograph with this lens, but I can say it feels like going home.

The downside, the burden, of this equipment is the maintenance, the cost, the lugging, the technical expertise (which reminds me I'll talk about the joys and pains of Photoshop some other time!)There's a learning curve I feel like I'm just beginning to tackle (undoubtedly related to the dream I had about cleaning dirty sensors featured in my first entry).

I'm aware that there are newer, better, faster, pricier, better-featured cameras and equipment out there and someday I'll upgrade. But for now this set of camera and lens is serving me well. And we've all seen photos from folks that have that better, faster, fancier equipment yet they're just not good photos because it all starts with the eye.