Buying a new camera
What makes a good photo and is new camera gear worth the expense?
Hello, I’m Gill and I write a photography blog inspired by the landscapes of Suffolk and beyond. Please subscribe to read more of my writing and visit my website to view my images.
I have been toying with the idea of upgrading my camera for a while now - the lure of a new Nikon Z8 is very appealing. I frequently browse the web looking for the best deals, adding the camera and a few new lenses to my shopping basket and then balking at the total price to pay when I get to the checkout. I lose my nerve every time - the shear size of the bill is too daunting to commit.
After these failed purchases I tell myself I don’t need a new camera, I love my D850 and it has plenty of life left in it despite it’s large and ever growing shutter count. This camera has seen me through the most formative part of my photography journey. It has been my companion on all my landscape shoots for the last 6 years and I know it like the back of my hand, so much so that it feels like an extension of me when we are out. I don’t have to think about where anything is, finding all the buttons and dials is intuitive and I can change all my settings with my eyes closed.
At the end of the day I know that £9000 of new kit is not going to make me a better photographer. It might make some aspects of my photography life easier, for example using filters and shooting long exposures is definitely easier with a mirrorless camera, but I really don’t think I will see a change in the end result. I am sure the difference in image quality between both cameras will be negligible.
Despite this, the lure of new kit is hard to resist, especially when slick marketing campaigns try to convince us we are missing out if we don’t have the latest gear. But I know when my images are hanging on a gallery wall no one is going to worry about what camera they were taken with. A viewer will only care about my images if they are moved emotionally by what they see and that comes down to the photographer and not the kit.
Apart from one sunrise session on a cloudless morning, I have had little time for my own photography this week and have been out and about with clients running workshops. I love these days out in the field as conversations with clients always inspire something within me. My take away thoughts from the sessions I have had this week have been to act now and not to put things off (we are back to the camera kit again) and the importance (or not) of being really technical with our image making.
I have to confess I am not very technically minded. This may be a hinderance for a photography tutor, but I haven’t found it to be so. Don’t get me wrong, I know the theory. I know how to use my camera to get technically good images and I understand the rules of composition but when I am out in the field these things seem secondary to the connection with place that I am trying to portray. I want people to feel my images as well as see them.
When I stand in front of a scene I experience a whole range of emotions, some uplifting, some more contemplative and sombre and it is these that speak to me and guide the finished look of my photograph.
So what makes a good landscape photo?
Photography is an art form and so the response to this question is going to be really subjective, but for me it comes down to the following:
Good composition
Good mood and lighting
Technically proficient
Well processed
But most importantly it has to be emotive. It has to make you feel something. Without this last element images are just record shots of a place.
Does gear play a part in the creation of a good photo?
Technically I suppose it does as the camera is the tool that physically records the image. However, providing you know how to use your camera, all makes and models will give excellent results these days, so on its own having a camera bag full of expensive gear will not produce good images. The key to a good photo is the person standing behind the camera and their connection with the landscapes they are portraying.
In my opinion a good image has to firstly capture the viewers attention. There has to be something about it that is compelling and invites exploration.
In the image above my intention was to use the patterns in the mud to draw the eye into the scene. I think the light across the ridges and the subtle contrast between the cool shadows and the warmer highlights helps create a compelling foreground.
The next thing to consider is how the elements in the frame all relate to each other - this is the story of your image.
My shot has a very simple composition. There are really only three principal elements; the foreground patterns, the sea and the rising sun. This is a story about the break of day, about the river waking up and how the warm light of the sun brings the landscape to life.
The mood is the next consideration - for me this is where the emotion comes into play.
When I look at the image above I feel calm, I feel I can exhale all my stress and I feel what it was like to be back on the beach. I realise that this is easy for me to say as I took the image, so I know what emotions I was feeling at the time. But my job as a photographer is to convey these emotions to my viewer - and only you will know if I have achieved that!
For me the smooth water, the colour tones across the image and the simplified composition convey the calm and tranquil mood that I experienced when I took the image. If I have conveyed this then I feel I have taken a ‘good’ image.
I believe there are two types of photographer - those I would class as technical photographers who are extremely knowledgeable and precise with their method and composition and emotional photographers who are more reactive and willing to experiment with whatever the environment throws at them. In my experience as a tutor most of us have a leaning towards one or the other.
There is nothing wrong with either approach, but I do feel that they lead to different outcomes. An image made by a technical photographer will look different to one made by an emotional photographer even if they were taken at the same time in the same place. This is something I have spoken about before in a previous blog but it came to the forefront of my mind again this week so I felt it was worth reiterating.
I haven’t necessarily abandoned the idea of buying a new camera, I just need to convince myself that new is better. Until then my trusty D850 will continue to be the camera of choice for this emotional photographer.
Thank you very much for reading and until next week enjoy your photography.
Gill
What is your definition of a good image and where do you sit on technique versus emotion? I would love to hear your comments.
New camera Gill? I was told by a wise man that the difference between a club photographer & a pro photographer is the club tog buys the latest camera body while the pro tog knows a camera is just a lightproof box plus ISO, Aperture & shutter speed so spends their money on a better lens which will make a difference.
I’d buy mirrorless if I was a wildlifer - but I’m not.
Best wishes, Peter
Hi Gill,
Happy Easter and thank you for your blogs. I can almost smell the sea seeing your pictures. No mean feat when I live in Nottingham. At 75 years, I have used a few brands and have to say that they all have their pros and cons, but I love using mirrorless. Being able to adjust the final image before it is taken is, to me, as big a revelation as changing from film to digital. Loving to take Landscape images, weight is now the biggest factor for me. The only thing I've learned is that I need to try out any potential purchases as opposed to buying on specs and reviews either on line or in print.