You never thought you would spend so much money on a new camera, right? I know what you are thinking. The very first digital camera I bought for my business, a camera that could do what film could do, was $24,999. That may sound like a lot of money. But it meant that I no longer had to pay $80,000 a year in film, processing and printing. So that was an easy business decision. I could make my money back for the camera in less than a year.
You might be thinking after you bought your new camera, I bought this great camera and it takes wonderful pictures. It does everything. It takes better pictures than most professional photographers I’ve seen. I won’t have to pay to have great pictures taken of my family again. I can do it myself. Really? Does the camera really take the picture or is it just an instrument?
If you wanted to be a good chef, after you buy the best stove, pots, pans, and kitchen tools you can afford, do you then say you are a great chef because of your equipment? No. You don’t base how good a chef is by the equipment they have in their kitchen. Now which guitar do you think makes the best sound? A Silvertone Acoustic guitar bought for $99 or a $9,000 Gibson Acoustic Legend guitar? I think it is obvious. But who can make a $9,000 Gibson Acoustic Legend guitar sound better, Eric Clapton or someone who started playing the guitar this year? It think that may be obvious as well. Just because you have a nice camera does not necessary mean you can take a great image. You see it is not the camera, it is the mind behind a camera or as photographers refer to it, their ‘eye’.
Yes a nice camera may make someone able to capture what is in their mind’s eye easier than ever before, but it does not guarantee it. In the past, you had to know certain technical aspects of the craft of photography, before you could produce quality work. Some of those requirements have been made easier with the newest cameras but you still need to know the capabilities and limitations of the your equipment. And that comes through practice. Hours and hours of practice comes into play. You see most people say you need to have at least 10,000 hours of practice before you can be considered an expert in any field. Do you know how much time that is with a camera? If you shot 8 hours a day, 7 days a week, it would take you 3.5 YEARS? If you shot 4 hours a day, 6 days a week, it would still take you over 8 years to be considered an expert. How many hours a day, every day, do you shoot?
I don’t say any of this to be discouraging to anyone. In fact it may not take that long anymore in the digital age. In the past you did not have instant results in the field. You had to wait for days and the opportunity to retake a given type of image but today you can retake it on the spot with so little effort. I think in reality you may become proficient in 2 or 3 years. I think it still requires 5 or 6 years to become an expert. The final word is this, know the abilities and limitations of yourself personally and your equipment. You will produce better images when you expand your capabilities and diminish the limitations you have on yourself.
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As you can tell blogging is not a habit of mine. I think it is something I would like to develop, but I have not made it a habit yet. So I am going to make another attempt to get in the habit.
For the month of August I am going to commit to post something every day. I will post something about photography, display a new image in my personal work, or talk about a new product I am developing. Maybe this will jump start me on the road to a regular habit of blogging. They say it only takes twenty-one days to change a habit. So I am going for thirty-one days to see if that will help me exercise my blogging muscles on a regular basis.
The committment for myself is if I can’t do this blogging thing on a regular basis then I am going to take it down from my website. Wish me luck.
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While the kids were home for the Thanksgiving weekend we came up with an idea for our annual Christmas Card. They were very coorperative in helping get it done quickly. That along with a little Photoshop work and we have the 2008 version of our family Christmas Card.
We hope for you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
One of my faults is I have a tenacity to over-think things. I started this blog in April 2008. I thought that I should come up with a wonderful idea or concept for the blog. But other than a few test entries, it sat idle. I have not come up with the genius idea. But I am going to start off with no grand scheme of things. I am just going to write. I may decide to post some of my personal images along the way. But I am not sure how that will work. I am just going to do something. Usually the ideas come as I start a project. So my blog may not contain this earth shattering idea but it IS going to start.
I am reworking all of my advertising and marketing materials this summer. I have not done this in years and my marketing is looking a little dated. My website needs updating. I ran out of business cards a few weeks back. A lot needs to be done. Tonight I thought I would pound out a business card. It could not have been harder. I was here and there and everywhere. My concept was that I wanted the business card to be clean, spacious and contain only the basics. I did not want to cram it with a hundred things. Just name, rank, and serial number, if you will. So after three hours this is what I have come up with for now. I am sure it will change as I move on to my website and other marketing things.
This entry is submitted to test my new blog on my own website.
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This is the second post.
It appears on blog A only but in multiple categories.
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