Ever heard someone say, “Nice camera. You must take amazing photos!”? Well, I feel like photography is one of those activities where “size doesn’t matter but it’s how you use the equipment you have” applies.
In the spring of 2013 I was at Kerry Park here in Seattle and I saw someone with a really nice camera and a huge lens and people kept coming up to him and complimenting him on how awesome his camera was. Now I had been taking photos with my Sony a65 for about a year at this point and I had been approached by a few people asking something similar, so I knew not to assume.
I decided to say, “Nice camera. What are you trying to take pictures of?” To my astonishment he said, “I have no idea.
I bought this thing to take photos of my paintings so I can sell them online. My friends told me I should get outside and use it to take more photos. It seems silly to them that I spent $10,000 on the body and $25,000 on the lens just to take photos of my paintings and nothing else, so I decided to try it out.”
I then asked him what his settings were and he showed me he was using the AUTO mode and his images were coming out blurry. I proceeded to try to teach him the MANUAL settings. I noticed he did not have a tripod and the sunset had started, so I went to my car and gave him a spare to use. He gave me his card and told me to contact him because he wanted to give me the tripod back. I told him it wasn’t necessary since it was an extra, but he insisted.
When I got home I took a look at his website and found out that the average price for his paintings was $50,000!! It goes to show that just because someone has a really nice camera and lens, it doesn’t mean they know what they are doing with their equipment.
I do enjoy asking people what they are trying to capture though. The answers will occasionally surprise you.
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Geoff Vlcek
Geoff Vlcek Photography- Owner / Photographer
www.facebook.com/gvphotography
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I am an award winning Seattle area photographer that mainly focuses on sports, but I have a wide variety of experience in multiple categories. My images have been featured on websites like Weather.com and I have sold multiple images in gallery settings. But most of all, I love the art of photography and learning something new.
My recent experience with this type of comment came when I had finished a high school senior portrait shoot and the mom was looking at some of the shots in camera when she said. “Boy, you really have a good camera. It takes great pictures.” I let her know I had something to do with it too. 🙂