I was just speaking to an amateur photographer moments ago and we were on the discussion of equipment. Recently I wrote a post about having top of the line gear and how important I felt it was when it came time to ensure that I was doing the most for my clients. Well today we discussed gear in general and more importantly, for amateurs. I was really surprised to hear him say that his Nikon D90 was inadequate. I remember starting out not very long ago with a D80 as my first body, and believe me, the D90 is a great improvement on the D80. He felt like he was missing out on some features or having a Full Frame sensor. Overall he was very negative about the body he was using and said something that gives me shudders as a photographer to hear: “I wish I had a better camera so that I would be more motivated to use it.”.

AAAAHHH!!! That’s frustrating to hear. Especially from someone who is photographerizing has a hobby/passion. While I have said that I prefer and believe it important to use top of the line gear, this was meant as a professional. From a hobbyist, that is just the wrong attitude in my opinion.  How can you put something so qualitative on a hobby.  If you like photography, go out and shoot, and enjoy your pictures, it’s not as much about what you’re using as what you’re shooting.  Chase Jarvis says it best with his line “the best camera is the one that’s with you”  (forgive me if that’s not verbatim), and I agree.  A fair part of my portfolio was actually shot with the D80.  It’s a very capable camera and I still have it.  Although to be fair, would not consider using it these days since I’ve got some better gear.  Point is if it’s good enough to use in my portfolio, then the D90 should be good enough for a hobbyist and not used to make excuses as to why we have no motivation to shoot.

I do however still use the D80 as a behind the scenes camera, and if I’d like to have a body on me for personal use that isn’t gigantic.  Either way, the following shots (and yet a few more found in my portfolio that are not included here) were all taken with my D80.  Oh and as an aside, most of these photos never saw any editing, just the one of the river/bridge and the yellow leaf.  At this point in my photography career I really knew nothing about the world of post.

I think what I’d like taken away from this post is that in photography, and in ANY passion we might have, making excuses is a bad attitude.  There are lots of things that I’d love to have, or think might help me complete tasks.  Part of that challenge is having that perseverance to struggle through things anyway though.  I’m really not just talking about photography.  I find that there are a lot of people out there who would rather tell me all the problems and challenges they’re faced with that make them feel like it’s not worth trying to begin with.  That in my mind is more of a failure than jumping blindly into something, and failing miserably, because at least you tried.  One thing is for sure, if I had that mental attitude there would be no 2D Photography Inc., and I would be either pretending to inch my way through school until I had 10 PhD’s or I would be enduring some painfully dreary career some where.

Here’s the difference between the two bodies, my D80, and my current.  At the end of the day, they’re both capable of great shots!

“It seems that when making excuses, the person we want most to hear them is ourselves.”  - David Dvir

I think there will be more on this subject to come.  I’ll stop here though

Thanks for reading,

David Dvir