Reminiscing a bit . . . Do you have a memory of when you first acquired some new equipment and you were just amazing in it's ability. I recall when I first bought my magic drainpipe 10 years ago. I had never owned a lens with a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The first day out after shooting some pics of my dog I was stunned at the quality and/or difference in my pictures compared to my other lenses. The bokeh was amazing to me. An "aha" moment for sure.
I started thinking about this because I was shooting my 400 f/2.8 the other day and when I looked at the pictures I thought, "Man, these are amazing pictures". Not being egotistical because I am far from a super great photographer. Just realizing how some equipment (lens this time) help capture amazing pics.
Do you have an "aha" moment/memory when some newly acquired equipment you purchased just did something to you or brought you to the next level in photography?
My first "aha" moment was when I put a 6x7 transparency on a light table. My next was with the same MDP that you mentioned. My most recent were about three years ago with the EF 500/4L IS and TS-E 24/3.5L II. I look forward to my next "aha" moment with great anticipation.
Mine was about 6 months ago when I upgraded to a new-to-me Canon 1D mk III. The difference this body and its focus ability has made in my sports photography is just amazing, a real eye opener. I find it hard to pick up my back-up 40D now.
My "AHA" moment was the first time I shot windowlight/doorlight portraits with my 70-200. It was my first wedding as main, and being able to make the subject "pop" with the soft light and mush background was awesome.
Unfortunately currently mostly all my moments are "D'oh!" moments instead of "Aha!"...but still look forwards to them nonetheless because I know they're out there someplace
I'm just having an aha, oho, OMG moment right now.
Been thinking for a while it was getting time to update my always meticulously calibrated 6-7 year-old Eizo CG241W monitors, though I thought they were still pretty good. So day before yesterday I went out and got a pair of Eizo CG276Ws.
OMG, shock and awe, camera and monitor technology have swept past my dear old displays and I am seeing all my images anew...and my processing too.
From 20D through all the bodies in between to the 5DIII and all my lenses, they have been producing far better images than I thought they were capable of, right under my nose at the time and now. I am delightfully floored.
Thing is, unless somebody has a CG276W or equivalent, it is difficult to communicate over something akin to a religious experience....
Recently, 5D3 at iso 6400. Less 'Aha' and more 'f***ing h**l where have you been all my life baby!' Shooting a project at the moment, iso 6400 and f1.2 using just the modelling light in my alien bee and an umbrella box to shoot contemplative portraits for a project on retrospection. Absolutely loving the look.
In a very different way, seeing even a simple scan of a 4X5 T55 negative done on an epson 4990. It was then that I learnt the concept of tonality that I have yet to see replicated with digital including the Aptus II 8 back we have in the studio.
My love for a fast 50mm is less the 'aha', mad, passionate, hot romance of love at first sight and more the long, comfortable, happy love of 20 years of marriage. The kind of love where it becomes as much a part of you as your own reflection, where you could less allow yourself to be separated from it as you could your arms or legs.
1970, desert areas around Tempe, AZ, with my grandfather, 35mm Yashica Electro 35 rangefinder and Polaroid Land cameras...my awaking to the magic of photography...cactus, tumbleweeds n horny toads.
1978 - A-1 with 24/35/50mm macro, my 1st 35mm SLR kit, Cal's Camera in Newport Beach was the place of purchase; still have this kit along with a Navy/Tan Domke F2 bought that same day.
1981 - 1st time in the darkroom after my injury, even with still fingers I could develop film and prints.
1987 - 1st T-90, what a TANK, picked it up used with a nFD 200mm f4 Macro, love using them both still.
2000 - 1st AF body and lens, EOS-3 with PBE2 Grip, EF 100f2.8 Macro...ECF really does work.
2007 - 1st DSLR, bought it new, gripped 40D with 10-22 and 70-200 f4L IS. The 70-200 just blew my mind, still does and is used near as much as the 100mac. Stellar gear...
2012 - Xmas, got the 100L Macro, after 10 plus years with the non-L all I can say is WOW
My first one was getting my first camera, a Spotmatic, in 1966 or 67. Next was being taught to develop my own B&W film and make my own prints. The next big thing for me was digital - being able to see the results immediately, and color no less! Then my first DSLR, an XTi, and raw. Then multiple off-camera flashes controlled by radio from the camera location.
For newly acquired kit, auto extension tubes. £50 solved a problem I didn't know I had.
However, my biggest aha moment - although it doesn't count as it wasn't new equipment - was the day I sat down to discover this "back button autofocus" I had heard mentioned.
The most expensive mistake I made was buying a second-hand 50/1.4. Overnight the rest of my glass seemed to become inadequate. I'm still paying for that mistake...
Never really, every piece of gear I bought was thoroughly researched (review sites, etc.) and performed more or less exactly as expected. I was never really wowed by anything I tried. I always bought gear I could apply to what I was currently trying to do or develop, everything already had a purpose so when the purpose was met, I wasn't 'wowed' or anything like that.
What has wowed me is (occassionally) looking at the photos of other photographers, and seeing what they were able to do, or getting surprisingly good feedback on my own photos when, to me, I though they looked just average or were nothing special.
I've had lots of "aha" moments in photography - moments of powerful realizations or understanding that moved my work forward in significant ways. One was when I spent four hours with a friend who is a master printer working over a photograph of mine some years back when I was trying to "get" this whole digital post thing, and watching how he "thought his way through" the image changed my approach to printing completely. It wasn't a technical thing as much as a sense of "ah, that's what I'm trying to make!"
Recently I had another related to some ways of thinking about what a photograph can do. I won't bore you with the details, but I hope that a few of my photographs may give evidence of this new way of thinking about images.
As to equipment, I have never, not once, had anything approaching the powerful "aha!" moment of realization and comprehension that affects the way I see and photograph.
Photographic equipment is simply the set of tools we use. There is little or nothing profound about it, and it does little to inform my "seeing."
Dan
Grantland wrote:
Hi,
Reminiscing a bit . . . Do you have a memory of when you first acquired some new equipment and you were just amazing in it's ability. I recall when I first bought my magic drainpipe 10 years ago. I had never owned a lens with a fixed aperture of f/2.8. The first day out after shooting some pics of my dog I was stunned at the quality and/or difference in my pictures compared to my other lenses. The bokeh was amazing to me. An "aha" moment for sure.
I started thinking about this because I was shooting my 400 f/2.8 the other day and when I looked at the pictures I thought, "Man, these are amazing pictures". Not being egotistical because I am far from a super great photographer. Just realizing how some equipment (lens this time) help capture amazing pics.
Do you have an "aha" moment/memory when some newly acquired equipment you purchased just did something to you or brought you to the next level in photography?
Another was when I rented a 50/1.4 for my Pentax k200d. Up until thenithadbeen the18-55 kit. Shooting a fast lens forthe firsttimewas definitely a moment!
