Need better Camera Gear ? Think again.

The 18-200 mm VR zoom lens on my Nikon lies in wait in a comfortable padded slot in my camera bag along with most of my other photography gear. The lens that made it obsolete is the Nikon 35mm f/1.8 . When I read online reviews on how the iPhone’s camera is the best camera to have with you, I wondered how it would be of any comparison to my fancy DSLR kit and zoom lens.

After shooting around with the 35mm fixed focus lens, my flexibility in picture framing almost vanished. My framing now depended on my legs and my distance with respect to the subject since zooming was out of the question. Initially, it was quite frustrating since I was well into my comfort zone with a zoom lens that required minimum physical effort on my part. All I had to do was point, zoom to the right size and click. Life was good. But my photographs did not improve the way I wanted it to.

Playing around and fighting my frustration with a fixed focus over time not only improved my photography, it made me realize that a lot of flexibility and options and accessories can seriously limit your creativity. I’ve read online articles about photography gurus that limiting yourself to fixed focus can improve your skills, but my mental block never allowed me to switch from zoom to fixed focus. My cup was full. The 35mm lens actually helped improve my photography. I was moving around a lot more, my framing skills improved and I was more involved in the subject because the capabilities of my camera reduced and I had no option but to focus on the picture. In short, minimalism in terms of features and options actually helped me focus better on the art. In the end, all that matters is how good your photographs are, not what you shot them with!

I’ve read about how Henri Cartier-Bresson made world class pictures with fixed focus simply because when he started out, he couldn’t afford anything else. Chase Jarvis says that the best camera (iPhone) is the camera that you have with you at any time. Chase has gone to the extent of creating an app for iPhone camera enthusiasts and it’s a big hit world over.

The point I’m trying to make after discovering it for myself is that the gear you carry around hardly matters. The limitations of your gear especially with a camera like the one on the iPhone are many but it hardly gets in the way when you hand it over to a Pro! Eddie Van Halen would never complain endlessly about the quality of his guitars, but a long time amateur would!!

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