These days I have less and less time to shoot. I have so many things on the go that I pretty much don’t have time unless I shoot inside of classrooms or from the driver’s seat of my car. However, I have started taking my camera everywhere with me just in case something pops up and I can pull over and shoot. This is a different strategy than the weekends of shooting that I normally did. At any rate, last night was one of those “Screw it! I gotta get some shots” nights.

I had just a small hour of time to shoot and I had to make the most of it. Ryan Griffiths who is a local photographer and reviewer on Photography Ebook Reviews, messaged me about a roof top in Seoungnam dong, otherwise known as “Old Downtown”. I decided, as I was drove up to it, to actually shoot from the top of it. Now, this is not as easy as it seems as parking in Old Downtown is a nightmare. Driving a a car instead of a motorcycle means that I actually have to find parking, which is another nightmare as Saturday nights are crazy down there.

As I drove up to the parking garage, all three floors were full but as usual they were letting cars in anyway. As I drove up a car pulled out and I got a space within seconds, much to the disappointment of the guy who tried to cut in front of me and take it. At any rate, I posted this because one of the challenges I have now because I mainly drive a car. What starts off as “Screw it! I gotta get some shots” turns into “Screw this! I’m going home” but not tonight! Things really fell into place.

As I got up to the door I quickly remembered that there was a guard front and center before the doors to the apartment. However, with a pretend phone call to a pretend person that lived in the building I just followed some people in and the guard was none the wiser. Getting to the top was interesting as there were two very noisy dogs on the 41st floor who immediately started barking as I walked passed. Being on the roof itself is difficult as well due to the fact that a large amount of people in the building next to it can see you. My advice would be to stay in the stairwell until the light drops down a bit. Don’t just wander around up there or people may think that you are think about jumping off or something.

At any rate, The sunset was mild but the pink showed through the clouds and created some great colour. With a festival going on in the area there were also lights popping up around old downtown as well. The best thing about this times was that I had a chance to plan out my shots while waiting in the stairwell and was able to take advantage of the fading light and the blue hour without wasting any time. What resulted was a series of decent shots with a minimum about of time. I was down and out of the building in just over an hour. Parking was only 700 won too!

Ribbon cutting ceremony

With great pleasure I announce that my photos will be a part of this years Ulsan International Photography Festival. This is an event that I have paid money to just look at the amazing photos and now my photos will be there! As you can tell, I am quite excited about this.

The official event opened at 3 pm on Thursday and I was there along with Masahiro Oku who was visiting from Japan. The event is held that the Ulsan Culture and Arts Center in Dal-dong. It is right next to KBS hall. It is a great venue and the photos look great.

Mr. Oku filming the event. Infront are his submissions

The photos span a wide range of genres with a focus on the work of Olivier Valsecchi. However, this is one of the few events that I have been to in Korea that actually has an even distribution of Korean and International artists. With photographers works coming in from the Czech Republic, Iran, Iceland, England, USA and many others including myself from Canada. Check out the exhibitors page here to get a view of the artists and their works

Submissions from Olivier Valsecchi

The Ulsan Culture and Arts Center: The small square building on the right of the main structure

I don’t put too much into the debates about NIKON or CANON, Google+ or Facebook. My main concern here is  ”do these plugins actually work or are they just putting crap over-top of my photos?” and “Will they make my post processing easier?” Suffice to say that these plugins do in fact work well, especially inside of Lightroom 4 and they do make my editing a lot easier.

Why Did I Write This Review?

I am not getting paid for these. It would be nice but the fact of the matter is that I am not. I am writing this and the other reviews because I truly love this product. NIK Software doesn’t even know that I exist. However, the thing is that their products have  greatly improved my workflow and I feel that my images have improved as well. That is the main reason for this post at at the time of this review their entire collection is $149!

HDR Efex Pro 2

One of my nightly rituals was to come back from shooting, make some coffee and spend the rest of the evening editing my shots. It was a great way to save money on a Friday night. One of the things that took up the most time was using photomatix to tonemap and then importing into photoshop or lightroom. It wasn’t a big deal but, especially with the switch to lightroom 4, it took up a lot more time.

HDR Efex Pro 2 runs right from lightroom and for that matter all of the other programs that it is “plugged in” to (get it? I made a joke there, LOL). So that means that it is not a standalone program like many iterations of photomatix. What this means is that you can edit and have your shot added right back into your collection without having to leave the program. I love this because I have folders full of unprocessed HDR shots. I like having everything in one place.

Silver Efex Pro

If there was one program that I have heard about so much and have been in awe of what was produced by using it, it is Silver Efex Pro. This allows you to create some stunning black and white shots using their awesome and simple pluggin. What I like about this software is that it gives you are range of different options to choose from and you can see the difference that each effect makes and then go from there.

As I experimented more I really started liking the interface. So far my workflow starts with cycling through the presets and adapting them to meet the idea that I have for the image. the presets offer a wide range of styles and with the introduction of the “structure” slider, they go well beyond the simple “lighter or darker” type presets that a lot of black and white converters have.

Sharpener Pro 3

When I switched from photoshop to lightroom, one of my chief complaints was the sharpening tool. I wanted my shots razor sharp but without making the photo look like crap (I think that we want this right?). I tried different presets what got something in the ball park but with Sharpener Pro 3 I got the control that I was looking for. I could choose to sharpen certain areas that I wanted to focus on and it was easy to figure out.

If you are looking for selective sharpening, this is the plugin for you. While a universal sharp is always helpful, one of the features that I always look for is the ability to sharpen certain areas. Using lightroom you have a basic sharpening slider within the brush menu but using the control points gives you much better control over the sharpening.

Color Efex Pro 4

When I recently shot a wedding I was looking for something to really make the photos pop. This plugin did the trick so well. Also when shooting with a 32GB card, you don’t realize how many shots you are getting and when you realize that you have a ton of great shots, this plugin makes editing really fast. The “visual presets” did everything so well as they were a great starting point for my editing process. The 55 filters work so well and helped add a lot more drama to the photos.

I have never been a fan of the “instagram” style filters as they always seemed to take something away from the shot rather than adding to it. However, the organization of these filters including categories like “wedding” and “portrait” offer a better selection and organization. While not every filter is a winner, they are great starting points with tons of customization options. Likewise you can save the “recipes” for further use. Not to mention stacking the filters for more creative shots.

Clouds were extremely noisy

Dfine 2

Another one of my concerns about switching to lightroom was that I had loved the noiseware pro that I have for photoshop. While now using a Canon 7D, noise is not so much of a problem, it is still there. Dfine 2 was the answer that I was looking for. With it’s ease of use and use of control points, it made it an amazing plugin that I am slowly depending on for my photographic work.

The profiling and analyzing that Dfine does is great. Another plug for the control points is that a lot of the noise in my shots comes from colour noise that may not be in all areas. I typically always shoot at a low ISO but because I shoot and process for HDR, you get a lot of noise from that process. Having the option of using control points to reduce noise in the areas that look the worst and keeping detail where the noise reduction process may affect the detail is a great option to have.

Viveza 2

Getting into more technical aspects of photography, you are going to need a system that allows for individual edits. While lightroom has the brush feature, it falls short at times and this is where Viveza steps up. Their “u-point” or control points work intelligently. At first I thought is was kind of hard work a circle but after studying from their extensive learning center, I found that they actually detect edges and confirm to the areas rather than being “just a circle”

The beauty of this is that you have all of your editing features right where you want it. Think of a landscape of different layers and tones. You want the trees to stand out and be sharp but a universal edit would take away something from the sky. Then you want the sky to be cooler and with a tonal change, it would make the green of the trees look a bit off. With Viveza you get all of that control and that is where the magic of this program shows up.

Final Thoughts

The bottom line is that these plugins do work. With the power and the variety that the NIK Collection provides is more than enough to improve your photography. They are simple to use and their site provides a great library of learning materials for you to take them to the next level. Also with the current low price and the numerous coupon codes about you are getting an extremely great deal. If you search around you can get the entire bundle for around $126 or something like that. So head to their website and try them for free and let me know what you think.

The new profile page

When I woke up this morning, drearily dragged my fat bottom into the gym.  After scanning the lasted posts kept coming up again and again. “Flickr has changed!! OMG 1 TB of storage!” Sadly from my phone couldn’t tell what all the hype was about.

By the time that I got to my office/classroom, people were already foaming at the mouth with comments on their facebook page like “Just liked your face book page to feed back how absolutely awful the new flickr I can not tell you how much I hate it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!” from one of the many angry flickr-users. I scratched my head a bit and wondered “is it really THAT bad?”

Recently, a few major sites have been getting face-lifts. Google+ did a major one recently and now Flickr. However, it doesn’t irk me too much when sites do this because well, generally the do a pretty good job and for the most part they are free with the exception of the flickr Pro membership.

The Back Story (as I understand it)

Basically, Flickr hasn’t changed since 2004 according Thomas Hawk and that says a lot. Thomas also gave a pretty decent rundown on the new changes on his blog today. As the needs of people grow and get used to different social media forms and even cameras themselves, sites have to keep up with the times. With increased competition from other more social photo-sharing sites like Instagram, people were starting to leave and stop dropping so many sparkly flashing comments. Flickr seemed to be lacking… something.

The public cried out to the new CEO of Yahoo, who took over Flickr, Marissa Mayer to “make Flickr awesome again” What is telling about this statement was that people still loved Flickr, they still uploaded their photos but it was still clearly lacking…. something. People wanted a fresh look to the site and they wanted a site that would show their photos in a way that is current and beautiful.

What Happened Today

When Flickr members either opened their email or checked their flickr page they were hit with a surprise. POW! there is your awesome back! Well, not exactly to the liking of many on Facebook and the Flickr FAQ. It was a little confusing at first because this announcement came with the statement that you would get a free terabyte of space… for FREE!!

What does that mean? Well for me it means nothing as I never uploaded full res photos to my flickr site anyway but for those looking to show the big-ass high res images, you have nothing to worry about. The problem was that if the free accounts get a terabyte of storage, what is the point of having a “Pro” account?

What they have added is a basic ad-based system where you pay to “remove the ads” and plugged in some other goodies like stats and whatnot similar to 500px. The also increased the price to $50.

circa 2010

The Outrage

A lot of the outrage from my friends and people in my circles centered around the new layout and look of the photos. I must admit that I didn’t think that it was all that bad. However, judging by the comments left on their FAQ forum, people really really hate the look. I mean hate with the fires of hell hate.

People also brought up that the photos looked horrible with the new layout and that the high contrast colour scheme was aweful. People wanted their 90′s-era page back with all of it’s white space (which people also complained about too back in the day) and random greetings in foreign languages.

Besides that, the arguments are lacking in a bit of substance. I have spent the afternoon looking through them online and thinking “So what?” The other thing that people brought up was that they have copied Google+ and 500px  and to that again I say “yup… so?”  If you look at how many of the social photo sites are heading they are all starting to look the same. Columns and mosaic style photo pages.

Large views are nice

My Opinion

In my mind I don’t really see what the fuss is about. My pro account stays the same price (yup not $50)  and I get the terabyte of add-free goodness.  Also the stats page, forums, and groups page (now called “communities”) are all basically similar to the point where I still don’t really care.

Flickr was losing its focus and the whole platform needed to be updated. The flashy gif icon thingies that pepper the comment section gave the entire experience a very dated feel. The groups were losing their drive as less and less people participate and the “Flikr Meet Ups” have all but stopped and are now taken over with Google+ Photo walks and Facebook group Photo walks.  They only way I can describe my feelings about the old flickr style is to compare it to the shopping mall in my hometown. They are both used frequently and are vital to the community but haven’t been updated since the the 90′s. They are suffering from the new kids on the block (pardon the pun) but people still visit there quite often even though they are not offering as much or just the “same old same old”

I actually like the new layout as it was a pleasant surprise. Once you get used to the layout changes, it actually seems more organized. The home page doesn’t get overloaded with comments as they are integrated into the stream. The scrolling feature now shows me more of the photos from my contacts and I can stay on the same page.  I don’t have to leave the page or sort through a 1000 tiny square icons.

home screen is compartmental and organized

The group suggestions and activities are located on the right as well as the Explore/Commons previews. Going back to the main page, I really like the fact that I don’t have to keep muting popular post just to see some variety on the page or having to click “more recent activity” to see if any of my photos received comments. I can just scroll around and see what’s new.

Another interesting feature that I like is the fav and comment function right from the preview. With the new layout, you can see photo previews on a larger scale and you can comment or like them directly from that page. This means for those people hunting for comments you will probably get more fav’s and comments as people do not have you head to your page, they can drop a comment right from the home page.

As for the single picture viewing experience, I find that the picture now fills the page better and the lightbox experience fills the screen seamlessly. All of the keyboard shortcuts are still in place (“f” for fav and “l” for lightbox, etc.) if you want to check out more just type “?” when you are viewing a picture and they will all come up.

Finally I guess that I feel flickr was overdue for an upgrade in order to keep it current. I like the new layout and I feel that they are going to be improving things in time. I really hope they do something with how the group lists are organized. At any rate, I think that this is the first of many changes and I like where Flickr is going.

During the weekend, my wife and I decided to take a trip to one of the more popular temples in Busan. Typically if you see an elaborately decorated temple from Busan, is will be Samgwangsa. This temple is huge as temples go for the area and is decorated with over 10,000 lanterns.

This Friday is Buddha’s Birthday a public holiday and one of my favorite times to photograph in Korea. Almost every temple in Korea is decorated for the event along with many parts of the city. Photographers head out by the thousands to get “that shot” of the famous temples and their lantern displays.

For me, I always head out during the evenings before the big day to catch the lanterns and miss the people. This is also when you can meet many other like-minded photographers. It is a quiet time, think “calm before the storm” and a great way to focus on your work.

However, Samgwangsa was not at all quiet. I did meet other photographers like Robert Koehler who I was pleasantly surprised to see.  As well as Ryan Griffiths and his girlfriend Erin, who are up and coming photographers from Ulsan.

As the light started to dim, every imaginable window had lenses poking out of it. With the lanterns on, out came the saxophone music and other random bits of entertainment. It showed just how busy Friday will get.    All in all, it was a great evening and  I was happy to get some shots of this landmark of a temple.

Precautions

First, remember that you are going to areas that the building security might not want you to be. So with that in mind, enter at your own risk. Second, be aware of locked doors and doors that only have an inside handle. The best thing to do is prop the door open when you enter the roof top area. That way you will always have an exit.

Warnings

Korea’s trespassing laws are generally not as strict as they are in the West but that does not mean you should ignore them. If building security says “No” that means “No” Go home and find another place to shoot.  Also please remember that you are on a roof top of a high rise building then you should act accordingly. Do not put yourself in danger and DO NOT act like a Jackass.

Getting In

The object of the game here is stealth and respect. Get in, get your shots and get out. Don’t show up and try and “sneak in” with 10 of your best photographer friends and their significant others. It just draws too much attention. Two or three people max. be quiet and confident.

Typically, most places have a security code. If you don’t have a friend that lives in the building, it is best to wait until some body leaves. Again, don’t make a big scene, just walk in. Then take the elevator up to the top floor. Finally, look for the stairs and make your way up. Strangely most places in Ulsan have the helipad doors open, so it is always a good idea to check them first.

On the Top

Once you have found your spot, get set up but keep a low profile. Again, be stealthy because if you get caught and they lock the doors, you will ruin it for everybody. Just get set up, enjoy the view and get out without being seen.

So with all of that in mind, here is another set of buildings to shoot from in Ulsan.

Starclass

Location: Shinjeong Dong. Across from KBS Hall

One of my favorite buildings to shoot from. The tower closest to the river has the best views and the doors are located behind Seattle Espresso, which is a nice place to relax after your amazing shots.

The roof is nice and there are a number of great spots to shoot from. If you are looking to get an unobstructed view of the Taehwa River area, then stick to the rooftop garden, rather than venturing up to the helipad. the helipad offers a great view looking out towards Shinjeong Dong.

Cross-roads by the Amuty

Dongmoon Amuty

Location: Daldong. Across from Ulsan Culture and Arts Center.

Just down the road the aumty building has a nice rooftop area to shoot from giving a glimpse of  the petrochemical area as well as Samsandong.  The contrasting views here are great and looking back into shinjeong dong with give some unique perspectives.

The tricky part here is that there is a guard station right by the main entrance. So again, one or two people might not be so noticeable  However a group of people showing up certainly will draw some attention.

Sky Rex

Location: Samsandong. Kitty corner to Lotte Department store.

These twin towers in Samsan Dong offer some of the greatest views in the city.  This is an easier set of buildings to get into as there are many foreigners that live in them. Thus if you ask nicely I am sure that someone will let you in. The rooftop is a bit tricky to get shots from due to the high walls but the helipad is open and offers decent views of the city.

Onsan seen from the Sky Rex

If you are looking at getting shots of Lotte Department store,  there is a ladder there that you can use to get over the wall and get some shots. However do so at your own risk.

Looking at the Taehwa River Park from the Exllu

Exllu

Location: Taehwa Rotary

This is one of the more tricky places to get in to. Simply because the building is not completely full or at least that was my assumption. I waited for a while and finally a group of people went in and held the door for me. The nice thing about this places was that there was an actual espresso machine in the lobby.

The best shots are from the helipad as the roof top is a little hard to get around. Also check out the interesting roof top bamboo gardens up there. It is an interesting design.

The Saechang Building

Location: Jangsaengpo, in front of Jangsaengpo Elementary School

This is probably one of the best places to catch a birds eye view of the industrial complex. It is a rather well known spot with local photographers as it is one of the few vantage points and the roof is not only easy to get up on but it is quite large as well.

Also note that one of my recent shots from the Weltz Tower in Mugeo dong made on to Flickr Explore! this is something that rarely happens for me, so I was quite happy when I saw that.

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When I first got bit by this photography bug, I took a little trip to Shanghai China. As this is a “Korean Photography Blog” I will preface this by stating that a lot of photographers head overseas while living in Korea. Also that places like Shanghai are places where a lot of Korean photographers head to as well.

With that said, I was searching through some old photo archives that I had made to see if I could improve on some old and rather nasty looking HDR’s that I made when I was in that “I’ll make your eyes bleed with colour” phase. At any rate, I found a few photos from my trip to Shanghai that really caught my eye. Particularly two shots of the JinMao Building and one of some building that I saw on the way back to the hostel.

Being a part of a huge event where pretty much everyone around you is a photographer in one way or another is an intense time. This year I was invited to attend as a member of the “press” which basically meant that I got a free pass and… well that was about it. Not that I am complaining but it was a little unimpressed after jumping on the KTX from Ulsan at 5:22 am to hit Seoul and then an hour on the Subway to get to COEX to get a plastic badge after the emails about being a “VIP blogger”

At any rate, I did get a chance to see the event again this year and take a look around. You have to understand that this is a HUGE event in a country that loves photography and loves spending money on photography. It is no wonder that the place was packed with people. This also made it hard to really get a chance to talk to the vendors as you had to be constantly moving.

Events like these in Korea happen a lot and this weekend was no different. On one end of the city (you could say) in Incheon, you had the International Car Show and then at COEX you had the Photo&Imaging Show. Both of which draw huge crowds of people. The main reason are the products that are on display but the second and no less important reason are the models.

These models draw thousands of fans. So when you combine them with an event like a camera convention, you got a great thing. Upon entering the show this year, you could feel a lot of energy. It was intense! So many people, so many companies, so much gear! You could hardly move there was so much going on!

The event was anchored by none other than the big photo companies like Nikon and Canon. Canon, I felt was the star of the show with a celebrity appearance by K-pop star Suji (from Miss A?) and the introduction of their smallest DSLR the 100D. There was tons of buzz from their booth making it really hard to make a serious effort to look at products.

The back area was a bit of a break with a gallery showing some impressive work especially from the guest country of Russia. It was nice to just walk around with some fellow photographers and check out some photos.

In the end and by the time I got home, I was wiped out. I picked up a great BlackRapid RS-7 strap and I love it. I really hope some day that the Photo&Imaging show comes to Busan as it was almost a fruitless/expensive trip up there. However, getting the chance to meet fellow expat photographers like Justin Howard, Roy Cruz, Robert Koehler, and Dylan Goldby made the trip totally worth it.

For those like me who have tried to sort through the thousands of photography eBooks out there and had a few hits and a lot of misses when it comes to helpful eBooks, Griffin Stewart and I have set out to help. This week we launched “Photography eBook Reviews” which is a brand new site that seeks to give you a better idea of the eBook before you purchase it.

We have assembled a great team for the initial start and are expanding on that to include even more talented reviewers. We have tried to keep the backgrounds as varied as much as possible from amateur to pro photographers from South Africa to Canada in order to give a more rounded perspective for each ebook.

The overall goal  of our new site is create a library of posts for every eBook related to photography on the market today. We also want to provide a fair review in the most unbiased way so that the reader, no matter what the level, can get a the most out the each review.  This is essential if you are not sure if the ebook that you are looking at is right for you.

The statement goes “You are Not a Photographer. You just have an overpriced camera” That was the graphic that peeked my interest in the short lived discussion that I was eavesdropping on. The OP or original poster put most of the people that he saw with DSLR cameras into this category. A little irked by this blanket statement that could very well apply to me, I turned to the world’s largest photography forum… Google+

I posted the question to the world and in one afternoon generated about a hundred comments and had even the likes of Jay Patel chimed in on the debate. So what is your take on this? For this post I am going to go into depths of the comments from Google+ and that of my own weary brain to try and answers this over-thought question.

What Does the Word Photographer Mean?

I think that we get caught up in the titles and their meanings. If you look at the above definition you will see that this is but one interpretation of the word. The important thing to conclude from this is the last bit “either as a hobby or a profession”  I think most of us hear the word “photographer” and immediately think of “working /professional photographers”  but we are adding words to make a new title.  Ian Ference , gave a great response to this with

“You’re a photographer if you take pictures.  Yes, that means that most of America are photographers in the era of mobile phone cameras.

You’re a professional photographer if a good portion of your income comes from photography.

You’re a hobbyist photographer if you do it because you enjoy it, for no other goal.

You’re a good photographer if you generally create works that are well-composed, well-lit, utilize appropriate apertures, etc.  I don’t want to get into an aesthetics debate here; everybody’s opinion on good photography will be a little different.  I think it’s unquestionable that, say, Dorothea Lange and Edward Steichen were good photographers.

You’re a knowledgeable photographer if you can explain the zone system, know what circles of confusion are, and can recognize that good bokeh is largely a result of aperture leaf design.

 

At the end of the day, though, if you take pictures, you’re a photographer, whether you’re using a cell phone, an Argus A2B, or a Canon 1DX.

You can see that the meaning we ascribe to “photographer” needs another atribute to hold true.  However, the connotations and or stereotypes of those connotations change with the very meaning of the word. A lot of what was mentioned in the comments on my google+ thread pointed to gear. There seemed to be a lot of stereotypes coming from the general public on how good a photographer is and the type of gear they use.

The “Overpriced Camera” Issue

In this day and age, everyone one has a camera of some sort. Most will have a camera on their phone and a lot have purchased a DSLR. Thanks to new technology being more affordable, DSLR cameras are becoming more common place and not just at tourist attractions or birthday parties. Thus, the image of the tourist with the fancy camera that they don’t know how to use transfers and gets dumbed down to any one that has a DSLR that looks “expensive” and is using it in public. You can see this at any social event. Cameras will click away but once a DSLR appears people start making judgements.

The fact of the matter is that most people that have nothing to do with photography will not know the difference between a $600 DSLR and a $6000 high-end one. They just see the camera in terms of size. “Oh that is a big camera! He must be compensating for something!” However, the debate of Camera vs Ability is an old one and these arguments are not confined to just photography either.

The thing that most people don’t understand is that a camera is just a tool. Nothing more, we put value on these cameras because for many years they have been viewed as a luxury item. In the West, we also equate luxury to materialism and materialism to greed. Thus, we need to discredit people who have “expensive” or “big” cameras to justify the fact that maybe we don’t have enough money to buy one or that they could have used (what ever amount of money we think THEIR camera is worth) for something else. However, a camera is just a camera.

Ability vs Camera

Another aspect is that we secretly want to see people fail who have expensive cameras. It is in our nature and we know it. Digital Rev TV has a great series where they give a Pro Photographer a crappy camera to see what they can do. This is the ultimate test in the “Ability vs Camera” arena. We want to see what sort of images a “Professional Photographer” can get with a crappy camera. It’s that age-old adage of “take that ____ away and let’s see what you’re made of” This case being “take that over-priced camera away and let’s see if you’re a real photographer”

We all want a level playing field. We also secretly hate those who have natural talent but are still common people. That is why if you take good shots you will inevitably get a comment like “What camera are you using? These shots are great!” Otherwise meaning “it’s not you, it’s your camera” This argument has plagued photography for a long time and bleeds into the “photoshop” debate as well. Again, everyone wants a level playing field and would rather accept a better/more expensive camera than natural talent or ability in order to explain why you mr. or mrs. common person, have sudden taken a great photo.

Jay Patel offered a great link to his blog on the topic of gear and if it really matters. I have to agree with what he mentions in that post. I have JUST upgraded my 30D to a 7D. I have shot for the AFC Champions league, various books and magazines, numerous functions including a recent one with the British Ambassador to Korea and one of my shots will hopefully end up in an upcoming book published by National Geographic, all with my old Canon 30D. As Jay points out “… Magazine and calendar companies are not interested in the equipment that was used to get the shot. They want high-resolution images for printing – they want to know the size of the image, and they want images that are sharp and free of noise.” 

As for my recent up grade? It was a matter  of budget. I was offered an amazing deal and I took it. Yes, a professional would have gone for a full frame 5D MKIII or picked up the newer/cheaper 6D but I knew that I can get great images with this camera without dipping into my savings or taking out a loan to get it. Again, if the image is sharp and the photo looks great, does it matter if it was taken on a point-and-shoot or a Canon 1Dx?

The fact of the matter and one that a lot of comments included was the question “Why should this bother anyone?” Is it jealousy? Perhaps. Or is it a social responsibility to “put people in their place”?  A lot of the issues around the “you are not a photographer” debate are largely based in the social idea that you are THIS and not THAT. Having an expensive camera does not make you a photographer nor does it make you a “professional” or even a “good” photographer, so how can we judge your worth simply by looking at the camera? That being said, why are we giving a person that we don’t even know so much mental power and thought?

Final Thoughts

With the wide range of comments that this topic generated the final conclusion that I could make is that a “Photographer is someone who takes pictures using some level of creative passion” I realized this because you don’t need any other moniker added but if you like taking pictures with what ever camera you have then that is what you are. You can buy a camera as simply a recording device but once you make an effort to improve your shots and/or do so on a regular basis you cross into the realm of a photographer. This means that if a company purchases a high-end camera to shoot an HD video of their product being built and they just switch it on and leave, they are not photographers. Where as an amateur photographer with a Canon 1DX may have an expensive camera but if said amateur is learning how to use it or making images on a regular basis, they are indeed a photographer on some level. They may not be a “good photographer” but who are we to judge, just by looking at someone’s camera.

On the topic of the overpriced camera, my final thoughts are “Who Cares?” does a person having a nice camera impact your photographic style in anyway? NOPE and if it does then it could mean that  your own camera and ability that should be the focus of your concern, not anyone else’s camera.