Perfect couple

“A lot of photographers think that if they buy a better camera they’ll be able to take better photographs. A better camera won’t do a thing for you if you don’t have anything in your head or in your heart.”

– Arnold Newman

I can’t agree with the common statement that cameras don’t matter.  They do and they don’t.  

You can do lovely work with anything that clicks.   But to do truely gorgeous work that means something to you, you do need to love your equipment.  Tool love.   Camera love.  Lens love?   

You can never have too much Lens love.  ;) 

Cameras and lenses are built with specific tasks in mind.  Some are designed to track athletes while others do better at portraiture.  Some are slow, some are detailed, some are fast.  

Haptics is often discussed when it comes to cameras. How it feels in hand.  How it’s laid out. Easy to use.  Comfortable.   Such personal things.   

Lenses are designed for specific tasks too.

I hate myself for getting caught up in consumerism and wanting the latest cameras. I can use the excuse that staying current is important for my work.  But I probably don’t really need too.   

I am just looking, the eternal search, for the perfect tool. There is never one at the end of the rainbow, yet we keep looking, trying and experimenting.   Hoping to find something that makes it all just that little bit easier.   

Perhaps I just love the hype, of the promise of that perfect camera and lens combination. 

Its really about pairing the two.  To concentrate on just one is floored thinking.  It’s a marriage, a partnership.  The two must work in harmony.  They must complement each other.  The perfect camera is useless without the perfect lens.   

I have eventually come around to the realisation that I need to start with the lens and work the other way.   

Anyway, one can always hope to find that perfect pairing.  It’s a worthwhile search.   

The perfect couple.  Photograph and text copyright © Len Metcalf 2019