Blog Post III

What are you bringing to the table?

Maybe the wrong question to be asking.

Perhaps it would be more useful to think instead about what is already on the table.

In any given situation there are myriad elements a creative type could use to orchestrate drama, and I am beginning to realize that the quality of those elements matters less than how you choose to implement them.

Well, duh. Me, an intellectual (not really :P) has heard it a thousand times--doesn't matter how expensive or high-tech your equipment is, you can still absolutely produce a something beautiful and thought-provoking. It only took handling someone else's camera to realize that I actually am very fond of and comfortable with my Nikon D3500. It's simple and does the trick in a no-nonsense manner, everything is in the place that it should be, and I don't really need it to be more than it is for where I am in my development as a photographer.

(That being said, the Sigma Art lens that I splurged on was a necessity and I would definitely drop that money all over again in a heartbeat).

The current pandemic is a total drag on the old muse. I find myself reticent to leave the house to shoot, to shoot other people, and thus my body of work is saturated with self-portraits and the further adventures of the mini centurion and his erstwhile companion, the tiny Buddha. Some months ago I made a panic-purchase of some Neewer panel lights because I thought that was what one should do after getting a camera; buy some fancy-ish lights, maybe a flashy camera strap, perhaps a cool bag... another lens? Why not a whole 'nother camera? Made myself anxious as heck trying to justify getting new things, thinking that maybe a cool gadget would jumpstart the creativity.

Obviously that didn't happen. My cool panel lights are fun, and I do use them periodically, but I find myself drawn more to natural light. The free kind of light. The kind you don't have to plug in and fiddle with. The kind that you happen upon in its natural perfection and you have to jump to take advantage of it. I don't have a fancy backdrop. But I do have a plain wall that has a naturally interesting texture that some people pay artists thousands of dollars to replicate. I have random furniture and items that are blah to me but intriguing to the viewer. It's 2:00 in the morning and I think I've lost my train of thought, but suffice to say, it would certainly have saved me a lot of anxiety if I had realized earlier that I don't need all the bells and whistles to create something meaningful, and the photos that I look at and go, "Oh, cool. Good job, me" were done minimally and almost as an afterthought.

Here is me making a note; stop freaking out about the equipment. You can do the thing. Without all the fancy things. Relax. Look around. Maybe stop thinking outside the box but have a look around inside the box and appreciate what is already there.

So, what is on the table and how can you use it?