It's Not The Gear...

I thought I'd do a little blog about something that has been blogged, talked about, and discussed all over the internet a million times over. That topic is the answer to the question "What kind of camera do you have/use?" and the typical response of... either A) Sony A7ii (in my case) and followed by B) It's not the camera though.

First of all... I completely agree with the answer "It's not the camera", but I fucking hate it. It sounds so... egotistical, like... "It's not the camera bro, it me, it's my genius, I'm just so good". Gross. At least that's the way it sounds to me. Let me explain the reason why it is truthful though with a few examples using other art forms.

Do you ask a painter "Hey, what kind of brush do you use?" or... a chef... "What kind of knives do you use?". No. It's not the knives that Wolfgang Puck uses that makes his food amazing... nor is it the ingredients. Everyone KNOWS that. Give him butter knives, ingredients from dollarama, and a easy bake oven... then give me the worlds best tools, ovens and the greatest ingredients known to man... he'd smash me. Same goes for the brushes or papers that Van Gogh used. It's not the brushes or paper... but everyone KNOWS that. Why is it that with photography people seem to think it is the gear that is making the photographs? I mean, in a sense, of course a "better" camera has advantages, just as better knives would, but, it's more important how you use them... and why.

Back to photography. I bet a ton of people would take the camera I use, Sony A7ii, over the Canon Rebel T2i (My first camera). It's "better"... I won't argue that at all, but at the same time some of my favourite photos I've ever taken were with my little Rebel and the kit lens, and I wouldn't trade those over a bunch that I made with the A7ii.

Now, lets use that same line of questioning and ask if you would prefer to use the camera above or the Rebel T2i?... your iPhone 6?... or even your iPhone 3G?! All 3 of those options would be considered "better" cameras. This was the camera was used by Henri Cartier-Bresson to make some of the worlds most famous (appealing to "Instagrammers"), beautiful and iconic photographs of all time. I'm bias of course, I believe he was the greatest photographer of all time, but, I'm not the only one. Whenever start with the bullshit mindset of "I need to buy a better lens" or "If only I had a better camera body"... I think of what Bresson would accomplish with what I have, and instantly I stop complaining, and realize it's not the camera why I'm not making any photographs, its ME.

I would encourage everyone to study Bresson's work, his process, his uncanny ability to make you stop in your tracks with every frame. Think about his work every single time that you think that your iPhone isn't good enough to create amazing photographs. IT IS.

Like I said, these images are only a drop in the bucket in a sea of unbelievable photographs from Bresson... but, when you look at these... do you ask "What kind of camera?" No. It doesn't matter, it's all about moments, geometry, composition and emotion. It's kind of embarrassing when I look through his photographs and I see so many thing that I've completely copied and incorporated in almost every frame I've made, but, I also feel like I've learned so much from studying him that it has made me a better photographer as well. If you're in a rut, take one of his photographs, think about where it would work in your environment, and go try to make a replica, trust me, you'll learn so much doing that over and over again.

This all being said, I get it, it's like "Yeah, he can say that, he as a $2000 camera. True. So, today I'm heading out with phone and my camera, going to edit and side by side both versions, and just do a little experiment to try to prove that your fucking gear doesn't matter, stop making excuses, and start spending that time walking around shooting.

I'll be back in 6 hours... it's 1:47PM rightnow.

I'm back. 7:34PM

Lets check out the side by sides for three shots. I need to mention that I just went out today and copied photos with my iPhone from previous days that I shot with my Sony. So lighting conditions, time of day, ect. will all be off... but you'll get the picture...

iPhone 7

A7ii

Obviously here the lenses are different. I had a 14mm on my A7ii, but, can you really tell me you see a huge difference or would have asked what I shot it with had I used the one on the left? The whole reason this location works is because of the symmetry in the architecture, that's it. It's not like if you show up with a Polaroid camera the symmetry dissappears, it would still look sick.

iPhone 7

A7ii

Alright, so when I went back today to shoot this with the iPhone, unfortunately the gates were closed, so I couldn't shoot through the arch, but, I decided I'd shoot it anyway to prove another point. You notice that the arch isn't there in the iPhone one. Do you notice the camera change? No. The photo works because of the arch being used as a frame, the balance of the walker to the tree in the left center of the frame, and lines acting as thirds, ect. the reasons the photo works has nothing to do with the camera taking it.

iPhone 7

A7ii

Alright so... I think I like the iPhone one better to be honest... I think I took a better angle showing more of a reflection and getting more of the leaves in the puddle as well as showing the walker a little better in it. I like the foot position in the iPhone version as well... so I'm gunna use this one for Instagram too.

Moral of this whole thing... IT'S NOT THE GEAR. Stop thinking you need to spend more money to get decent shots. If you split the time you think about gear like this... half on Google studying photography and watching photography on Youtube, and the other half out shooting, making mistakes and learning. You will get back WAY more than you will just dropping $1500 on a new body, or a new lens. Of course, go grab that shit when you can, but... in the meantime, don't let that thing you don't have hold you back. 

Crazy Concept! (An Instagram Rant)

Only the first week of this blogging thing and I’m already getting into the ranting. This won’t continue, I promise, but, sometimes it has to happen. It has to happen today, because I was scrolling around on Facebook when this article popped up:

Inside Instagram Pods: The Secret Trick to Increase Your Engagement

As soon as I saw the title I knew exactly what it was about. I didn’t know they were called “Instagram Pods”... I just called them “Lame ass DM liking and commenting groups for kooks”. Personally, I think my name is better, but, to each their own. The first time I had been exposed to what was going on was when I had actually been asked to be a part of one of these groups a few months back... I politely declined.

I declined because I asked myself “Why?”. I get the concept. I understand that it tricks the almighty algorithm into populating your photos on a larger amount of feeds or whatever because it thinks you have some huge “engagement” which you can then use to your advantage by turning around and tricking brands and companies into “sponsoring” (teaming up, linking, building) with you. “Fire” idea right? But, in the explanation of the concept I found the flaw. The word “TRICKS”. If I need to trick a brand, a person, a company into anything, I want no part of it... and vice versa. If they can be tricked this easily, I want no part of them.

Who the hell out there is getting all dolled up to hit up the club, texts all their friends and says “Hey, guys, when I get there, tell me I look gorgeous. Say it loud enough so everyone else hears you, and then they will think the same thing.” No one. Because you would be called a clown real quick. How LAME does that sound? I donno. It sounds corny to me at least.

What the worst part about all this is that it is so painfully obvious if you just dig just a sliver deeper. Yeah... you may be fooling some brands and companies now, which... cool? I guess...? But long term, they are going to dig a little deeper as well and realize that you’re fraudulent. If not, then you still know you’re fraudulent (which is even worse in my opinion).

The good news! There are a ton of incredibly honest, talented, and passionate artists and companies out there that see through these wack tactics. They realize that hard work, being true to yourself, and always aiming to improve their craft is the best way to grow, and to make real connections... CRAZY CONCEPT! Mind you, this is much slower, longer, tedious, takes way more effort and consistency, and requires a true love for your product, concept or art. The other thing is that it may NEVER turn into anything at all. But if that is what stops you... do you really love it as much as you think?

I think about it like professional athletes or musicians... put in a shit ton of work cause you love it, no other reason. You may not end up in the show, or selling out arenas in the end, but at least you weren’t the dude telling everyone to pump your tires and lie to you. Personally I came to that realization with photography a while back. This will likely never become a full time thing for me, or even a part time thing, and it will probably just remain a hobby for me forever... but I’m completely cool with that. I’ll never stop though, because I love it, and I certainly won’t stop because other people are willing to scheme, trick and fake to get ahead. I’m going to keep trying to learn, improve, meet new people, have fun, and create the best work I can... and I can be happy with that, because I know I’m not trying to trick you and tell you otherwise.

 -fini-

First Snowfall In The Peg

Alright... so it has worked for now. I said I'd blog today, yesterday... and I actually made it happen! 9:30PM... Shhh... shit is not easy... as you can see from my sporadic blog posts here in the past. That being said, I'm going to try to get at this a handful of times a week, and perhaps get this going as a daily thing.

First things first, shout out whoever is here reading this, I appreciate you, it is weird writing this to essentially no one, so, when I figure out who has been here and who hasn't I can kind of tailor it to the audience that is here. If anyone has suggestions on what to write about, questions that I can answer, anything of that matter feel free to comment here, or on Instagram. It would be a huge help in getting me to stay on top of this thing, and it would make it more fun in general. If not... it will just be me blabbering on to myself... not interesting.

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Saturday morning in Winnipeg was gorgeous! I'm going to need to give my girlfriend a quick shout out for getting my lazy ass up when I was sleeping through my alarm. HUGE ASSIST. I must not have been feeling heading out shooting as much as I thought I would be the night before, but when I peaked out the window and saw everything covered in snow, I was instantly stoked.

Friday night I got my plan together for sunrise, I google mapped a few places around the city to hit up, and the place I decided to start at was St. Vital Park. I had never been through the park before, so I didn't really know what to expect when I got there, I just knew I was looking for a "lake" with two little islands. The original idea obviously included the sunrise, but with the trees looking amazing because of the snow, it worked out that it was cloudy.

One of my favourite things about photography is that spark that you get when you get a photo you're super into when all your preparation falls into place. This was that shot yesterday morning, and I just wanted to get moving to all of the other spots I had some ideas for. The next place for me was the St. Boniface Cathedral. My original idea that I had been wanting to try for months was framing the skyline in the hole in the cathedral during a sunset (facing west). On a morning like this however, I had something better! This snow looked insane...

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Well... sometimes your ideas don't really work out as envisioned. I'm not really into it! I donno, maybe it works, but it's just not what I had in mind. I don't like the metal in the top of the frame, I don't like the rectangle thing in the bottom of the frame. The trees end up blocking the downtown view, and the whole image just feels a little unbalanced to me. I decided I would get a little higher of an angle to try to get the skyline in the frame, and keep the cross at the apex of the cathedral in the foreground instead of "the hole".

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This was better to me. It showed off the snow and colours in the trees way better than the other angle, and it provided some natural leading lines in the architecture. The walkway brings your eye to the diagonal of the cathedral wall, to the cross, to the bridge, the skyline and the museum. It works way better as a whole in my opinion and is much more balanced.

The moral of the story, is, sometimes the original idea you may have for a photograph may not turn out exactly as expected, but having an idea or concept in the first place is what puts you in the position to succeed, and make something you love.

Finally...

Alright.

I think after a year and a half of "blogging" every 3-4 months with just dumps of photos and a small descriptions explaining that I'll be trying to do it more frequently, blah blah blah... I THINK... I now have an idea for making that happen.

Posting photos isn't always the most fun thing in a blog, so, what I think I'm going to make this is basically like a music, food, drink, hotel, "travel", WHATEVER blog. I have opinions about a lot of shit, so, I'm just going to be putting up the every day garbage that I've got those opinions on, and try to take photos of what I'm talking about as well.

This shit ain't for you. It's for me type thing. I realize I'm talking to no one but myself here for now, but, if anyone ever sees it, shout out you.

The chances of this becoming a Caesar ranking blog is VERY likely...

Foggy January

This was my first shot with shooting video with the Mavic Pro, also my first time learning how to edit video. I still have so much to learn, but, I thought I would share this anyway, cheers!