Over the past number of weeks I’ve had a quite a few solicitations for paid article placements. I have no idea if these approaches were from legitimate photographers, or were from scammers, as I ignored all of them.
Category Archives: Essays
Buying Criteria Changes
A recent comment from one of our readers (thank you Lewsh!) caused me to ponder if our buying criteria for camera gear is changing, and if so, why. It wasn’t that many years ago that it was reasonably common for photographers (especially enthusiasts) to upgrade their camera bodies frequently. Perhaps not with each new model generation, but many folks would upgrade with every second successive model. That often worked out to a new camera body every 3 years or so depending on the brand.
Uncertainty
There obviously is a lot of uncertainty in the photographic world these days. Depending on what you have read or watched recently, it would be easy to assume that the world as photographers currently define it, is crashing down around us.
Habitual Photography
Staying fresh and challenged with our imaging craft can be difficult at times, and if we are not vigilant we may fall into habitual photography patterns. When that happens our choice of subject matter becomes more limited. We rely on existing methods and approaches. Sometimes we lose our creative spark and photography becomes a chore, not a joy.
Photographic Soul
As a photographer, there is nothing more important than being able to reveal your photographic soul through your images. Sometimes we get caught up in quite meaningless aspects of photography. The amount of money we spend on camera gear. The size of the sensors in our cameras. Our choice of lenses. The software programs we use in post. Comparisons of trivial differences between pieces of kit. While these things may help us create our images, they are not integral parts of our photographic soul.
Camera System Objective
Having a clearly defined camera system objective is critical when buying equipment. The more tightly we define our photographic needs, the more likely we are to select the right combination of components to meet our goals. This is true regardless of the camera format and brand we purchase.
Future of Cameras
There has been a lot of concern about the future of cameras over the past number of years. As photographers monitor CIPA statistics and the financial performance of various brands, it can be difficult to remain optimistic about the future of cameras. This article looks at various categories of photography and where cameras are best positioned for the future.
Niche Market Differentiation
Lately I’ve been pondering whether the niche market differentiation strategy of Olympus is at the root of so much ‘Olympus bashing’ on the internet. Being a long-time Nikon 1 owner, I’m certainly accustomed to a camera brand being underrated and criticized. It seems that for many people, and even some photography websites, there is a discernible anti-Olympus bias. Perhaps this is a natural result of Olympus following a niche market differentiation strategy.
Assessing Camera Trade-Offs
Over the past number of months I’ve been getting some interesting questions via email from readers. The majority of them were about assessing camera trade-offs, and trying to make a purchase decision. As we all know, there is no such thing as a perfect camera or camera system. Everything photographic comes with some kind of trade-off. Regardless of the camera brand and model we individually choose, the most important thing is selecting gear that best suits our specific needs. This article summarizes some of the feedback I have been receiving from readers.
Sensor Obsession
The amount of heated exchanges in photography chat rooms that people have about sensor size seems to be almost out of control these days. It’s as if some people think that nothing else matters when it comes to the art and craft of photography other than the size of a camera’s sensor. I can’t help but shake my head and think that this entire sensor obsession phenomenon, and related fixation on pixel peeping, are a waste of time.
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