"Wow! This Food Is Tasty! You Must Have Good Pots And Pans"

You don't need an expensive camera to take great pictures.

My sister Mary and I were discussing this yesterday. I know many aspiring photographers and they talk and talk and talk about every little piece of equiptment they have, how much it cost, what they want next. They go on and on about all manner of technical capabilities, how many shots per second their cameras can take, what kinds of coatings their lenses have. They even debate trivial things like whether or not the small reduction in focus clarity caused by adding a protective glass filter is acceptable. In fact, they talk about everything except the photographs.

But wait, photography is still an art, right?

Not that a good camera and professional lenses cannot greatly help you obtain your vision, or realize new visions. They can. But when it comes right down to it, very little of what goes into making a photographic image truly great is dependent on the camera you used. Great photos do not have to be technically accurate, having incredible resolution, or super clear focus, or spot-on color. They can, for sure, but they don't have to. Some of the greatest images in history have had none of those qualities. Far more important are composition, placement of elements, mood, drama, and the story you are trying to tell.

The trick is to work within the capabilities of your camera. Even the best cameras have limits, in all areas too. And for that matter the camera's capabilities are just another in a long line of constraints you will have to work within to realize your vision.

Start with a vision that is consistent with all of your constraints: your camera's capabilities, the lighting you have to work with, the speed or movement of your subject, the time you have to set up, and all the other technical restrictions that every shot will present you with. You will still be left with many creative options.

If you have the luxury of money and a solid vision, then go get the right camera for that vision: SLR for action or long lens shots, large format camera for landscapes, etc, and get the very best lenses too. If not, treat that fact as a challenge to overcome and modify your vision accordingly.

The famous Picture Post photographer Bert Hardy was one of many over the years who have purposely used cheap or highly limited cameras to take great shots just to prove to the rest of the world that this limitation can be overcome. The shot above was taken by him in the 1940's with a Brownie box camera at Blackpool. This camera cost about $3 when new, had a fixed aperture and shutter speed (meaning that the camera doesn't even allow you to control exposure), and used a curved film plane in an effort to control distortions caused by the cheap lens. The shot speaks for itself, and many others have done similar things with "not much camera".

So get out there no matter what camera you have, work around the constraints, and see what happens.