All Or Nothin'
The system or the iPhone
Want to kill the enjoyment of the photographic process? One sure-fire way is to bring the entire system of your main rig. You know, the camera system that you consider “the serious photography” camera. The camera you’ve spent a ton of money carefully acquiring all of the lenses, filters, accessories, lighting, batteries, tripods, and all the other baggage that allow you to take a picture of anything and everything under the sun. You can handle wildlife, landscapes, sports, action, events, portraits, macro. You can deal with day, night, bad weather, close things, subjects far, far away — all of it.
One tiny little problem… Half of that gear fills up a rolling backpack and weighs 72 pounds. Beyond the physical burden, there’s a heavier multifaceted psychological burden. The endless choices when out in the world. You’ve got the gear to tackle anything that presents itself. So what will you photograph? What? You didn’t bring a camera on your daily business, or leisure jaunt, or the night out? Aren’t you a photographer? There’s always the iPhone, that’s the camera you bring everywhere right?
The vast majority of photographers I meet in-person or online have fallen into the all-or-nothing trap. They bring the big-boy camera along with all the other crap that goes with on those rare “going out to make pictures”1 occasions. Those occasions have one purpose; making serious photographs. If not in serious photograph mode they have an iPhone. Too bad they don’t even bother with the iPhone except once in a while when prompted. How do those turn out? Most often they are throw-away pictures that are not as good as non-photographers iPhone pictures who use it as their only camera.
The psychology goes something like this: real photographs need real cameras which I’ll only take with me when I plan on making real pictures. No worries, I have my iPhone if something comes up. When something comes up I don’t even bother with the iPhone because it’s not a real camera.
I see it with photographers all the time in workshops. A king’s ransom in camera gear hauled to the workshop. It’s all used for the picture-making situations that have been set up. During the downtime where there might be models, participants, and the general population interacting in interesting, candid moments having fun there’s not a single camera around — except mine. I swear some of my favorite pictures have been made during “downtime” at locations I selected for “serious pictures”, workshops I hosted, or out and about at restaurants and bars.
Do I bring my whole kit? Of course not, that’s ridiculous. Do I rely on my iPhone? Nope. I could but candidly I probably wouldn’t. Not because it’s not worthy, it’s because it doesn’t cross my mind. There’s no subtle tap on the shoulder to make a picture with my iPhone the way there is with a more purposeful, single function camera.
So what do I bring on these downtimes? Sometimes I’ll bring my real camera that I was using for the workshop demo shots with a small prime. I never bring a big zoom, too burdensome and bluntly, too much choice. I’m in “picture mode” more than being in the moment. Sometimes I’ll bring a classic film camera like an OM2 if I packed it. I’ve gone through a ton of alternate digital cameras selected exclusively for the daily carry purpose. You get the idea.
I think the huge success of the Fuji X100 series from the beginning was fueled by the desire to have a real camera that was not the system camera and not a phone. A camera you could comfortably carry with you a lot, all the time for some. A camera that would subtly tap you on the shoulder; “hey there’s a picture right in front of you”, without dominating your brain. It works, it’s why I bought three iterations X100’s.
I’ve since switched that to an X-Pro 3 with a 50mm equivalent as I have once again determined I like that perspective better. I did not turn the X-Pro 3 into another “system”. The pull is strong to kit out the little Fuji’s to cover all your needs but you’ll run the risk of taking all of it, or too much of it just in case. When in “not taking pictures” mode my one rule is: no camera bag.
I use film cameras a lot like I used the X100’s and the X-Pro 3 now. Classic film cameras are a variation of the thought process with more constraints. They have limited frames that can be shot. Putting it another way, a classic film camera only taps you on the shoulder when it’s really, really important. Even then you end up saying “ummm, no”.
“Rare occasion” is relative as compared to all occasions. ↩︎