I can remember when we got our first proper camera. To start with, my Mum was allowed to use it, then after we got reel after reel back of photos with stickers on them, my Dad pretty much took over. The best picture I can remember was of two swans swimming on the canal. Sadly their heads didn't make it into the photo.
Having good camera equipment is nice, and sometimes it can make getting a great shot a little bit easier, but ultimately all it can do for you is assist you with ....
- exposure &
- focus
Cameras have incredible on board processing power now, they can assess a scene and actually tell what they're photographing and set the camera up for you. So if they detect a landscape, they'll step the aperture up to improve the depth of field and ensure that the ISO is as high as possible, whilst setting the shutter speed to the optimum to ensure proper exposure. All in a matter of milliseconds. Some even have HDR built in, called EXR by Fujifilm to draw detail out of the sky, to help ensure it's not overblown next to a properly exposed foreground. This helps some people out and is sometimes worth exploring if you feel you need that and you may argue that I've just disproved the above argument. But I haven't, because it's the photographer that has to enable this mode to start off with, or enable or disable this functionality before deciding whether to push the shutter.
Auto focus is important too, but occasionally on cheaper camera's or lenses it can struggle in poor light. The Photographer is ultimately responsible for making sure the camera is pointing in the right direction that it's focussed on what he wants and when a compromise is required, it helps if the photographer is knowledgable about post processing in order to decide whether they can pull enough detail out of one shot, or whether to use auto bracketing to produce a HDR photo later on.
Cameras can't decide whether to blur backgrounds or widen the f stop to keep it all in focus (unless we put them in a particular scene mode). They also can't help a photographer compose a shot, they may have grids (the photographer could enable) to illustrate the rule of thirds, but the photographer decides whether the third lines goes left or right, top or bottom.
Nowadays, pretty much anything that can capture a digital image is enough for the budding photographer to use and to create, under the right circumstances a pleasing shot. But a good photographer must first master his equipment, know how it behaves, know it's strengths and it's limitations and decide then when best to use it. They must have an eye for the light and see when it falls in a manner thats likely to produce a beautiful image. If they only have their phone, quite often, thats more than enough.
This is why I love what I do now. Years ago, top level photography was exclusively for the well off. Whilst the cameras may have been reasonably priced, having the photographs produced was a costly affair. But kids today have everything they need not only to capture an image and store it, but to adjust it, straighten it, recompose it, add effects and ultimately (although it's a bit old fashioned) print it out to frame.
So long as we teach our children the basics of exposure, composition (ISO, Shutter speed, Aperture) and why each aspect is important, when they'd want to use it, if they can get themselves a reasonable piece of equipment, they should be encouraged to venture out and capture anything that they consider beautiful in our world.
To illustrate the point, perhaps unsurprisingly, neither of the pictures on this page were taken on a DSLR. They were both mobile phone photos, and I think they're beautiful.
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