The Lust for New Equipment and Improving Your Photography

This is a great article. It goes into why buying a new camera can be a bad thing for your photography. I believe way to many people get caught up in gear. They think that by just getting that better camera, lens, or lighting setup they will be able to take better looking photos. Then, they get distracted by how to use that gear. They don’t look into the why and how of the photos they like. One of the things I love about the Improve Photography web site, podcast, and newsletter is the explanations of how to get the photos he took.
Before you think about needing new equipment, have you pushed your equipment as far as it will go? Will this new equipment allow you to do more than your equipment already does. I admit to wanting another lens. But, it will let me do more things like night photography of the stars, and let me get better shots of wildlife at a distance. A want a couple more pieces of lighting equipment, but those will actually let me improve the pictures I take of models and miniatures. I’ve come to close to pushing as far as I can go with those pieces of equipment that I do have. I look with longing at a new camera body. But, it will not do anything to improve my photography, so it can wait. I would like to replace my zoom lenses with quality lenses, but that can wait.
I want to leave with this one piece of advice I got from my photography professor in college. If you want to take better pictures, take more pictures. Now, this is in the days of film photography. So, that was more expensive. With digital cameras, there is no reason for those who have photography as a hobby to not take pictures every day. You do not have the expenses of film, processing, and printing your photos. Do not be afraid to experiment. If you get bad photos, so what? You can either archive or delete them. It costs you nothing but a very small amount of time. Keep in mind, your photos do not have to be taken with your fancy DSLR. They can be taken with your phone. Just about everybody has a phone with a camera. If you see something interesting, take a picture. Here is an example. This morning I was cooking breakfast and took this photo with my phone. It’s not great. But, it is a picture I can take into Lightroom or Photoshop later and work on.