I’d much rather be behind the camera than in front of it, but Great Google tells me I need a portrait shot on my website. If Google says so, it must be true.
I took this with what is now my son’s hand-me-down Canon EOS Kiss Digital X camera. It’s an old camera that was released 16 years ago. While I could have asked my best friend David Schwartz over at David Schwartz Photography and Pics on Route 66 to shoot this, I thought it would be a fun experiment to see if I could get a good shot out of an old camera.
See, the camera actually has surprising little to do with making a good picture. The skill of the photographer (and I don’t consider myself to be a pro) has much more to do with it than the camera. A bad photographer will take bad pictures, even with a great camera. A good photographer can create good or even great images with mediocre gear. It’s more about light, composition, and color than having a 60+ megapixel sensor with 13 EV of dynamic range and a $2,000 lens. I’ll do a post on my gear, and what a beginner should look for soon.
When I was first getting serious about photography, I spent a good amount of time learning my camera and how to apply “the basics”. Learning how to control exposure, focus, and depth of field. Once I felt I had an understanding of how to control the camera, I watched and read everything I could on lighting, composition, and color theory. Even now, I spend at least 3-4 hours a week watching videos or reading about composition and editing techniques, then, I go out on “practice” shoots. The goal isn’t to take amazing pictures on the practice shoot, but to try out the new ideas I just learned, and refine and integrate those skills into my style. I’m still learning photography, and probably will for the rest of my life. That’s one of the best parts of photography!
In the end, though, it’s all about creating better photos. I think my profile picture turned out pretty good, even with a 16 year-old camera. So yeah, you can create good images with old gear. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think.
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