Hey Everyone! Hope your week is going well. Mine? Very well thank you. This week I want to talk about "Walking the Walk and Talking the Talk". So what does that mean? It means doing what you say you'll do and living up to the advice you've given. This is really an "About Me" blog. At the beginning of the year I gave my New Years Resolution of not buying any camera gear and do with what I have. I did stick a caveat that if I found a killer deal that I would not let that go without action. And I did find a couple of deals and my pals have made fun of me.  But its more than a resolution its all of the years of advice that I have given on photography and not getting caught up in the buying and trying to keep up with the Jone's. The last couple of months I have been heavily into research for upgrading my camera bodies. As you may know I use "Used" gear and am usually a version or two behind the current and most high tech gear model that's out there. But after watching hours upon hours of Youtube I had become convinced that I needed a new camera body. So I researched and researched the different camera models and new gismos and the high frame rate and the high megapixels of the newer cameras. And I was all caught up in the hype of a new and shiny camera. Then I started thinking about things I have told other people about buying new cameras and gear. Like....

What kind of photography do you do? Will the new technical advances really help your photography? If you are a wildlife or Sports photographer Elk, Cherokee the high megapixels and fast frame rates might help you. But if you are a Landscape, Portrait or any other kind of photography where high speed shutter and high megapixels a new camera won't really improve your photography. Unless you just want a shiny camera and can afford it the new one a new camera will not improve your photography. This is where I was. I'm basically a travel/street but do landscapes also. So although a cool and new and shiny camera would be awesome but it would't improve my photography over the camera's I have now. So my money would be better spent on trips and other things.

Are you currently using your camera to the fullest of its ability? Are there features that you aren't using? Are you running the latest firmware of your camera? For the first and second question. I haven't been using my camera to the fullest ability. In other words I haven't outgrown it. It is still very capable and will be for a long time. There are parts in the menu that I haven't explored yet that may make my camera like brand new. I basically use the same features but don't explore others like I should. For the third Bicycle Built for 2 question. I'm very good at keeping up with firmware updates. These updates could radically improve your camera's abilities and new updates come quite often and usually are not advertised. So looking every once in a while to see what the latest firmware version is out is a good habit to get in to. Don't forget lenses they may have firmware updates that can make them sharper and faster focusing. Making them like brand new also.

These are the questions that I had to ask myself. And I did. I decided that for the type of photography that I do I don't need the latest and greatest camera that is out there. I'm still getting good photo's from my camera. Most of my photographs are on the web so Megapixels isn't a great advantage to me I don't print that much and when I do it's usually in an end of year book. I don't miss the larger file sizes that large megapixels images would have added to my computer either. I am not a professional photographer so I don't need a big professional camera that has the latest and greatest technology. Fall Colors House Although I think they are actually very cool and what all the new cameras can do.  I really don't need a new camera and it wouldn't help my type of photography at all. I actually feel better after making this decision . Like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders. So next year won't be as expensive as I thought it was going to be.  So I'm taking my own advice I have asked the questions that I would ask anyone else. So until next week grab your old camera and... Get out and Shoot!

Hey if you want to check out my photography go to my instagram account Max Stansell Photography there are over 2000 posts there. Here is the link

 Max Stansell Photography Instagram Link