I almost cracked yesterday. A first time visit to an impressive country estate with hills behind on a warm sunny day made me consider setting my Panasonic GX7 to raw and 4:3 ratio, but thinking about all those other raw files languishing on my laptop waiting to be processed and uploaded persuaded me otherwise. I stuck with jpgs. and the 1:1 ratio and was glad I did, since a fair amount of what I shot is already uploaded to a picture library.
I took the 12-32mm and Olympus 45mm f/1.8 and my Blackberry Q10 with me.
Some of the above is from the Panasonic, some from my Blackberry. It says something that I enjoyed using the Blackberry more. This gear 'ennui' seems to be getting worse.
I guess some are questioning why I'm doing this. Well, the simple reason is that currently I'm out every day, walking and taking pictures. I think I've had about three days this month when I haven't been doing that. In fact the last year has seen an incredible number of good days for photography and I'm taking advantage of it. And the benefits of small light cameras and / or using a phone with all this walking are pretty obvious.
There is also the fact that I can actually see what I'm taking with the phone. The GX7 EVF isn't OLED and the screen is way too reflective. I know that all phone screens aren't that great, but the Q10 has a good one, It's not perfect but it's better than most cameras.
It's just a more enjoyable and more productive shooting experience. No faffing about with lenses and camera settings. Point. Shoot. Fast edit. Quick upload. Done. Next.
No obsessing about lenses, camera settings, focusing, ISO etc. because I simply don't have any choice. Point. Shoot.
So 'pure photography' from a smartphone? Well yes, because photography is about photographs and despite the number of times I write that it still doesn't register with many. I'm finally coming full circle to when I shot film. In those days I kept the same camera and lenses for years. My ISO setting was locked in the same place for years and I 'messed about' with my cameras a lot less. All my attention was getting in the right place at the right time and pressing the shutter.
Digital photography has it's advantages, but it also has a lot of baggage come with it. And I'm seriously fed up with all that baggage. I'm enjoying taking pictures more than I have done for some time. Are they better or worse? Well aesthetically they are about the same. Technically worse but not by enough to make me worry about it. The point being that all the 'superior' stuff is sitting on my computer waiting for me to steel myself to spend several weeks of my life editing it. The phone stuff gets handled much quicker and is sitting on websites available for sale.
And I've finally realised that I do value my pictures more than my gear. I always have, I've just been a bit sidetracked recently.
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