The question that I am often asked by someone impressed by one my pictures is: “What camera do you use?” I wish I was asked: “How did you take the shot?”
I got interested in photography long before I could lay my hands on to any camera – let alone a decent camera I could call my own. I love photography not because all the nice equipment that I have today but because the passion I felt long before I had anything. In those early days, my next door friend’s dad who used a Yashica twin lens reflex told me: “It is the man behind the camera that matters more”.
I wish I could use that as an answer to: “What camera do you use?” But out of humility I don’t and with a hint of guilt I meekly say: Nikon D 800. That is a heck of a camera – and perfectly capable of taking lousy shots.
In all these years I haven’t had a single reason to blame any camera I used over my ineptitude to take the shot the right way. The camera did not came up short – I did.
While there are many who would agree with me, I believe there are folks who believe that better camera does make a better photographer. I am not getting into what makes a camera better. But if the camera was to blame then the photograph should not have been taken or displayed or discussed. The better photographer knows the limitation of the equipment and uses the camera to its advantage.
Today we use auto-focus and auto-exposure cameras. Some even compensate when we struggle to hold the camera steady. We just need to press the shutter – and that’s easy enough, right? Wouldn’t you agree that anyone with a decent SLR should take take perfect shots all the time?
Benu Sen, the famous photographer from India once told me, pointing his 2 fingers at my eyes: “Fix these and the rest will be easy.”
