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When inspiration happens, what stands in the way?

I was making my way down a wooden walkway on an early morning photo outing - backpack and tripod in hand – when I was struck by this eerie scene that appeared before me.  A perfect moment, I instinctively reached for my iPhone and snapped off this. Had I taken the time to pull the equipment out and set everything up on the tripod, would I have grabbed a better image? Would it have the same wow factor had I used the better equipment? Would I have missed the sun in that particular spot in the sky? At what point does "gear" get in the way of creativity? Should inspiration drive the hardware choices?

At a recent photo club outing, the leader was explaining why he continued to use older photography equipment on his hikes. His intention was to always travel light. His tripod was small; it featured no ball head mountings or other bells and whistles, very bare bones. His camera was a point and shoot with an attached lens. He would simply stoop down at an interesting scene and fire off a quick set of macro images. The macro on the point and shoot he explained was a true 1:1 macro setting. Today's small-sensor digital cameras can rival the macro capabilities of a DSLR with a “true” macro lens, despite having a lower reproduction ratio, making macro photography more widely accessible at a lower cost. That's all he needed to instantly capture the fungi, flowers, and insects that he wanted as his subject matter. I do enjoy setting up the equipment and taking my time adjusting the exposure and aperture, and reviewing in the histogram. Most photographers are tech types, I also enjoy seeing something unfold before me that screams to be captured. This is especially true with nature photography which I tend to do most of the time.


A short time later after I had set up my equipment I was able to capture this humorous shot of a turtle looking up at a Blue Heron as it was taking off. At this point I was able to grab an inspiring moment at the time it was occurring. Would I have been able to grab a shot like this with my iPhone? Of course not. I needed my tripod, and telephoto, the correct gear to capture the scene.

What these instances have in common is the ability to see creatively and use the tools to capture that. Are you ready at a moment's notice to grab a shot? Conversely, is there enough going on around you to warrant standing behind a camera and tripod for any length of time?

A fine art photographer once explained that he absorbs the scene sometimes for hours on end and at the right instance, when the light is optimal, he fires off the shot. This may take an entire day of sitting and observing the scene. Inspiration over time, yet still at the exact inspirational moment the shutter is released.

My intention this year is to pull out the old point and shoot and grab some snaps as things unfold before me. In any situation, whether it is city, country, dawn, or dusk. Sometimes it's not always in the best interest of the shot to capture a tact sharp perfect image, but to grab an image that is compelling and leaves the viewer with some feeling. I challenge you to do the same. Forget for a moment the gear you own and go out and capture a compelling scene. Compare what you captured from pure "inspiration" with the body of work done on your higher end gear. I think you'll be surprised.
Happy shooting in 2014!

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