So you say an expensive camera does not make photography better, well my guitar disagrees!

A short story by Mike, and a eulogy to Becky my beauty

I like to make points with stories, so I am going to tell a story to make my point. So here is a short story to address an even shorter point! It’s about cameras, sure, but more about Becky, my guitar! (If you don’t want to read it you can meander to the last paragraph and see my opinion on expensive cameras and how they relate to photographers.)

As of late, I have had to have a plastic bag handy to cover my keyboard- as I study the new camera bodies being released by camera companies, I tend to drool. This month we saw the release of the Nikon D4, and shortly before that the announcement by Canon on the upcoming release of the EOS-1D X. So I have been talking online and watching people discuss these new beauties. This is not a blog about their abilities; as I said it’s a story for people who like to read stories, and a little point I want to make to those who like to come down on other photographers for desiring to have these new cameras. As I partake in the discourse concerning them I get the occasional response like, “the camera does not matter”, or “I don’t understand why you would consider buying these expensive tools, you can get great pictures with any camera”…. and so on. Sometimes these people will even get upset at me for suggesting the camera has a part in the end. Recently Nikon had to retract the statement they made, “A photographer is only as good as their camera” because of the barking they got from their audience. How a camera relates to the artist is sensitive. There is a fine line between who takes the picture and what takes it. Here is how I see it.

I started out in the arts composing music and playing guitar. I recall my first guitar. An acoustic Gibson full body, it was a true thing of beauty for me. I worked hard feeding cows in Flamborough to earn the money to buy it. I grew and expanded my music on Becky (her name). Years later I was at a May 24 long weekend party at Cayuga Speed Way. I had left Becky with some friends I met that weekend to go to the washroom. (*Gag* Cayuga washrooms, that brings back unnecessary memories..) Anyways, when I returned, they told me a guy with a white hat had ran off with my guitar. I flipped out and asked in what direction. I knew I could recognize Becky, for I had bitten the head of the guitar years before to make evidence that it was mine. My teeth would fit the mold; I was determined to get my beauty back. A while later I found her, I recall the scene…

There they were. A bunch of guys, drunk as can be, laughing and shoving each other. A gloomy spirit was in the air despite their fun, I looked for the guy in the white hat for a few moments before I was going to move on to the next site. Suddenly there he was walking out of the most expensive motor home I had ever seen, he was feeding the beast inside himself with a fresh drink. He was pointing and laughing, I looked in the direction he was pointing with that filthy finger, as my eyes set on the spot my heart sank deep. Becky had been placed in a fire pit and all that was left was a portion of the neck and head that I had bitten, strings curled up from the pain of fire. An ironic and sad reminder of all the good times we had composing by candle light with a glass of wine. I am not one for violence, and anyone willing to burn a person’s guitar for a fleeting moment of caustic laughter in my mind, is not right in the head, so I moved on.

Earlier that weekend I had been playing guitar for some biker looking dudes, and they had asked me to come back for more jamming. I met up with them later with my friends guitar in hand. I told my sad story in a love song I wrote for Becky, my beautiful Gibson! One of them spoke up and mentioned how the group that took my guitar was bothering a few other people with their antics. It seemed there was a stream of people telling these big dudes about their morally nebulous neighbours. Probably, like me, others were hoping to get the ugliest beast of a gang together to kick them out! The next night as I grieved by my fire for Becky, I saw a hoard of people moving in one direction, I looked and what did I see? Mr. Filthy Finger White Hat’s motor home up in a blaze. It was either an accident or someone had taken revenge for other antics him and his henchmen sprung on their victims. I thought to myself, either way its revenge for me! Becky had come back to teach me the sweet sound of music in a lyric now in my mind for good. "Do nothing in response and letting karma take its toll" da dee da da da! The main point in my story is this. In my opinion we learn and gain more by watching from a distance the path fools walk on, than jumping on it ourselves for a short jog to get back at them!

So how does the story make my point concerning cameras? Well later that week I bought another guitar, to replace the tragic loss in my heart for Becky, this time it was a cutaway. For those of you who don’t know that is a portion of the body that is removed to allow for the players fingers to reach additional frets, one can play more notes this way. I was so excited I started writing, and sure enough those notes lead to a new song. Later that song would help the band I was in win some local music contests. So here is the point of the story (for real), it is the difference between capability, and ability. I can tell you this, in the few weeks I had the new guitar I didn’t get much better when it came to my composing capability. However, I now had the ability to explore something I did not before with more frets to work with. It is the same with cameras I believe. So to those who like to harp a little on us who appreciate the new equipment, I will say this. I agree with you, a camera does not make a photographer better, in capability that is. Yet it does make us better by giving us the ability to go places and do things we have not done before. The new equipment does just that, it is better in low light, provides video capabilities never seen before, and so many other little things that will expand our art. And unfortunately it comes at a steep financial cost for most of us. I do believe a camera does make us better when it comes to ability, so let’s stop blurring the lines between artistic vision and the tools we use to capture it. I know you can get a good picture with your cheaper camera; you just can’t do it in some situations because the camera won’t allow you to. There are crappy photographers with good cameras and good photographers with cheap cameras. It’s the good photographers with good cameras that are lucky! And I don’t doubt they work exceptionally hard to both become good and afford the tool that shows it in new ways.

thanks for reading!
Mike