Hey Everyone! Hope you're having a good week. Me pretty well getting ready for another fall trip to the mountains. This year we'll ( my camera club) will be going to West Virginia in the New River Gorge Area. Thankfully we didn't plan to go to the devastated North Carolina mountains this year as we have done in the past. It saddens me all the devastation to the place that I hold so dear to my heart. Well this week we will talk about something I don't really talk about too much. How your camera isn't that important in photography. I know, I know, I'm a gear guy and this blog is mostly about the gear that we use. Now I'm going to tell you that for most of us the type of camera body that you use doesn't matter. If you watch YouTube or Instagram or Ticktock you know that they Pops are always hyping the latest and greatest camera body's , what they can do , how many frames per second how fast they focus, the megapixels or whatever new feature they might have. I'm here to say that unless your are a professional photographer or specialize in some sort of photography that needs 120 frames per second or focus that can track a fly in mid-flight you don't need the fanciest camera out there. And I'm here to tell you that if you're an average photographer like I am if you buy the top of the line camera that you are wasting your money buying features that you won't use and unless you have disposable money unlike myself you should use what you have.  For most of us our photo's won't improve with the new camera.  If you use your camera like I do for street, travel or landscape photography a new body will not improve your photographs. The frames per second or the fancy fast focus will not focus any sharper than the camera you have. Unless you're shooting wildlife or sports the fast shooting or fast focusing won't help. Megapixels don't really matter except for crop factor if you really want to crop in a lot. If you're using your photo's for social media, or printing for your wall how many megapixels isn't really going to matter if you have 24 megapixels or more. Now this is all my opinion. I think that you would be better suited in buying good lenses and spending your money there than in fancy bodies and not improving your lenses. Road to the TempleGoblin Valley State Park Utah Lens quality I think is more important than that of the camera body itself. A good lens no matter what body you have on it will give you sharp photo's. I try to practice what I preach my main lenses each cost more than the body that I put them on. Only one of them is the top of the line but the others are very close to the top and very high quality. The camera body that I am using is a Sony A7C which is very new to me. It is not considered a professional camera but a consumer grade camera. It was released in 2020. The camera that was a Pro/Sumer camera that used to be the main camera is the Sony Cherokee A7III which was released in 2017 I still have it and used it around the house and for my negative scanning. So I don't have the latest and greatest camera body. But I still think that I produce very good photo's and don't think the camera body is holding me back at all. Very much the other way around. I don't think that I use only just a little of what my current camera body can do. 

So why am I telling you all of this? Because I think there is too much pressure on getting new camera's the latest and greatest. Don't get me wrong everyone wants and likes new gear. But for most of us it's not needed but with social media , Peer Living Waters pressure there is a lot of pressure to upgrade to the latest and greatest. And yes I have fallen to this in the past. Thinking that if I get this camera or whatever type of gear that my photo's will get better. So I would buy that new body. But the photos never get better. I may focus faster, the megapixels may be more but the photo's still look the same. You've always heard folks say " Hey that's a great photo you must have a nice camera" And you always think to yourself. Silly the camera didn't take the photo I did. You wouldn't complement a carpenter " Hey nice house you must have a nice hammer" No you know the EYES skill that the carpenter has built the house and the hammer was just a tool. The same is with the camera. It's the photographer that took the photograph not the camera. It's just a tool. So if you want to take good photographs I would advise you into investing into photography education, learning how to use the current camera you have and practice , practice , practice. You will come out with better photographs and spend a lot less money. Then and only then when you reach your camera's limits then upgrade.

Well that's all I have for this week . Until next week get outside and shoot!