Photography Masterclass Magazine
PHOTOGRAPHY GEAR TO INVEST IN
In his video, Adam recommends two main investments in terms of equipment: a good camera, and good lighting to go with it.
The camera part is quite easy, especially because he doesn’t try to convince us to get a particular brand or model of camera. Instead, he just points out that nowadays, basically every new camera that comes on to the market is likely to be a good one. He notes that for him personally, the most significant upgrade he experienced was moving to a full-frame camera because it gave him better performance and opened the door to a better range of lenses.
Adam also mentions being happy and/or satisfied with your camera, and I believe that’s the key takeaway from this point. If you enjoy using your camera, you’re much more likely to actually use it. I remember getting my first DSLR, which was a used Nikon D80 that I bought from a friend. Going to that from my previous point-and-shoot camera was a huge upgrade for me at the time, and it was such a fun trip. I took that camera everywhere, and I enjoyed using it everywhere.
I would also personally recommend that you get two lenses: a 50-millimeter prime lens, and a fast zoom lens. That’s probably a pretty standard recommendation, but it’s common for a reason. The 50-mm prime lens can force you to learn more about the fundamentals of photography and discover new ways to make your pictures interesting. There’s a saying that, when you have a prime lens, your feet become the zoom, so you have to put a bit more thought into composing your pictures. Prime lenses are also generally faster, with wider apertures, which allow you to capture bokeh and play around with selected focus.
As for the zoom lens, after I had had the 50-mm prime lens for about a year, I bought a Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 lens to go with my D80. Having that wide aperture available throughout the zoom range was sweet, and the zoom itself was great for those times when my feet simply couldn’t zoom in to get closer to my subject. It’s also a third-party lens, which made it less expensive than one made by Nikon, Canon, or Sony.
To continue with these “my-two-cents” suggestions, I’m now going to do a full 180 and recommend that you also get a small, cheap point-and-shoot camera. This isn’t meant to replace your “normal” camera, but it can certainly complement your main camera. The key, though, is to make sure that it’s compact and that you organize things so that it’s always easily accessible.
Right around the time I bought the D80, I also bought a tiny Panasonic point-and-shoot. I usually took both cameras them with me, but there were times when I didn’t want to schlepp a huge Nikon camera, so then I’d just take the Panasonic. It turned on and was ready to shoot within about a second, and it even fits in my pocket. It’s simply a fun camera, and I still have it today.
In fact, we recently went on a family trip to Mount Rushmore, and I let my two boys use the Panasonic, as well as a $40 Kodak camera that has a rubber protector around it (you can probably guess which one I gave to the sevenyear-old, and which the four-year-old got to use). Both boys were incredibly excited to take pictures with a “real” camera, and they even managed to get some cool, creative shots!
Another recommendation that Adam makes is to move the concept of “light” to the forefront of your photography. That can be in concrete ways, such as buying a speedlight flash, a light cube, or an “always-on” light.
However, it can also be more abstract than that, and he suggests that we simply think more about light. After all, photography is all about capturing or “writing” with light - it’s right there in the word “photography.” We should always be thinking about where to find good or unique light and looking for new ways to use light in a creative way.
The only other piece of physical equipment that Adam recommends investing in is a photo printer. Now, I admit that this one kind of surprised me, since I’ve only spent a total of about 10 seconds of my life considering whether I should own a photo printer, and the answer was always a resounding “no.” I just assumed that any photo printer would be as rubbish as every printer that I’ve encountered in my life, only much more expensive - and it would probably also have overpriced photography ink and paper to match. I’ve preferred to print my pictures at labs or professional printing places and let them deal with paper jams or whatever other mishaps might arise.
Still, I do agree with the idea of somehow making physical copies of your photos, whether that’s in the form of prints or photo books. Since most of us already spend hours and hours every day looking at screens, including looking at pictures, there’s just something special and almost relaxing about being able to hold a picture or a photo book in your hands. I think that whether you use a professional printing lab or a more commercial service like Snapfish, Shutterfly, or even your local drug store, you really should make more physical copies of your photos.
For his part, Adam says that buying a high-quality photo printer really upped his game, and it also gave him even more control of his photography experience from start to finish. I respect that, but I think this is just where his opinions and mine diverge slightly. Maybe it’s like changing the oil in your car: if you enjoy doing it, then more power to you. But I’d just as soon leave it to the professionals and invest my time and efforts elsewhere.