Zos, I agree with your reasons for not changing gear, yet I also sympathize with Tuck's reasons for doing the opposite. I think he recognizes the trade-offs in his suggestion.
Even after 5 years of fairly frequent shooting (some 40K frames) I have still not developed complete muscle memory for my tools. I've been shooting with a K20D for the bulk of that time, and I would not look kindly on changing that body to something significantly different as I'd have to go through the fumbling around phase once again. So I'm not looking to switch up equipment just to give myself a kick. I don't need to ... yet. But I can see reaching a point one day where I'm so familiar with my toolset that it could become a tedium. Tuck, as a commercial food, headshot and product photographer shoots orders of magnitude more that me and has been doing it for a few decades. He could shoot corporate headshots in his sleep, and that may in fact be just about what happens when you reach that point in your life. Job comes in: no problem, cookie-cutter task. Take trusty camera with fave lens, setup bog standard lighting arrangement; click. Result? Perfectly fine but boring shot. Cash cheque. Thanks. Some would see that as just fine: guaranteed income. Go home and watch TV in the evenings. But many, like me and apparently Tuck, see it as uncreative repetition. Soulless and unfulfilling. So what to do? Well for starters: wake up!! Maybe some can mentally kick themselves and get out of a rut, but lots of us need an external stimulus. Wholesale or partial renewal of gear would definitely do that for me. So Kirk Tuck's suggestion isn't for everyone. It works for him though. On Sat, Feb 23, 2013 at 10:05 PM, Zos Xavius <zosxav...@gmail.com> wrote: > I like the pentax cameras because they fit like a glove. I fingers > know where everything is and what they make accessible are the > functions I need most (ISO, EV, etc). I've used canons and nikons and > I hate their ergonomics. I love that I can do about everything one > handed..even change the white balance. (take that d7000!) I think that > makes for better pictures because the camera just becomes a natural > extension of me. I'm not constantly fighting it to get what I want out > of it. It becomes transparent. I think there is something about that. > I don't see the point in moving to an alien system and having to > readjust just for the sheer challenge of it. If anything, you should > be challenging your brain to take better pictures. The more you know > your gear intimately, the easier it will be for you to be more > creative. That's a fact if you ask me. If you aren't challenging > yourself to try new things you aren't progressing. > > "People think I change gear because I'm in love with the gear. I > really change it because the only way to stay fresh and relevant to > yourself and the process is to keep growing and keep questioning. I > have the advantage of being able to look back and see how we used to > do it long enough ago to see the stark contrast between the days of > hypercontrolled and stiff photography that comprised the art when I > started out in the commercial field. It's totally different today and > the same old tools don't necessarily apply." > > This paragraph struck me as being rather flawed. By this logic Cartier > Bersson would have been a much better photographer if he changed > lenses or bought an SLR. Or O Winston Link never grew as a > photographer because he always used view cameraas. If that isn't a > load of BS, I don't know what is. You should chose your equipment > because it suits the purpose you are trying to achieve not because you > want a challenge. If all you need is an all manual rangefinder and a > 50mm lens then I don't see anything wrong with that. I'm very much ok > with just a couple of primes. > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. -- -bmw -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
