Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Tools... they're just tools!

Gods! I love watching the photo-industry, following the rumors, and thinking about my current setup.

Queen's Web ~ Fracture

You see, it's a distraction from actually going out and making images.  Isn't it so?  Or perhaps it's what I do between shoots.

Canon looks to release a super small mini-Rebel DSLR.  They'll do this perhaps tomorrow or the next day.

It'll be a very sweet treat for people invested in Canon DSLR, looking for a very small camera, and not wanting to sell (at a loss) to buy into a mirrorless system, like Panasonic/Olympus or Sony.

While I love my Sony NEX5 first generation cameras, there's something that attracts me to the idea of a small DSLR.  I can't explain it.  First I complain about the size of DSLRs and buy into a mirrorless system.  Then I wish for a small DSLR and think about selling the mirrorless gear.  Then I worry and wonder about Sony's yet to be announced full-frame NEX that is rumored to cost more than their current RX1 with the fixed mount Wonder Zeiss.

Dusty Rose Victoriana ~ Fracture

I have too much time on my hands and am left thinking and rethinking, hashing, and rehashing my image making tool choices.

I find myself in this silly though spiral after spending nearly three weeks processing a few rather tasty images from a photoshoot I had with Fracture.  She came over from London to spend a weekend here in Paris.  We worked a theme of Noir Victorian Gothic and it was a great experience.  Now that I'm finished with the first big pass through the material, my mind has turned back to the mundane.  Tools.

I know what would happen, too.  I'd buy the new Wonder Toy.  I'd be happy for a few weeks.  But when the next photoshoot came up, I'd grab the 5D MkII and 7D and dive back into the studio to make more images.  I trust these cameras as they've been with me for going on five years now and there is still nothing demonstrably better on the market today.

Last night, before I dropped off into the Land of Nod, I read in Reponses Photo #253 a letter that mirrored back to me the silliness of my emotions.

A person had been using a Canon 20D since they were introduced.  They seem to limit their tool choices to two lenses, a 50mm f/1.4 and a 300mm f/4.  The writer was bemoaning the fact his beloved camera suffered serious heart failure (as in deep electronics "went south") and they needed to replace the boite with something new.

Brazing Engineer ~ Steam Power

I think back to my old film days.  First I'd own a Canon AE1.  Then I'd sell it and buy a Nikon FM.  I'd sell the Nikon FM to buy a Pentax MX.  Then I'd sell the Pentax MX to buy a Canon F1.  Oh, such a circle it was.  Predictably, I had very little to show for it.  And this was before I wandered down the large format film camera road, which was a Minor Insanity all it's own.  All the while admiring those artists who used their Leicas and Sinar systems for decades on end.

This morning I stood back and looked at my chosen tools of image making and know, intellectually, that I can't make any better image by acquiring more or by changing the mix of what I already have.

Still, it's fun looking through "what's new" and wonder.

I must be Mad.  Really.  I must be.

My only hope, in the Deepest Darkest Night, is that I have a few images to show for all this Thrashing Madness after all is said and done.

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