There’s a tool for everything. And while it’s best to use the most proper tool for an application, experience teaches us some ways around that. I was exposed to photography from the earliest of my memories and even in the 80s, I knew that photographers had a lot of tools. Whether it was the standard SLRs that ruled the day or the common point and shoot cameras that ranged from high-end to literally disposable, photographers had a multitude of tools at their disposal to achieve their vision of the moments they were capturing. My enthusiast/documentarian mother had nice Canon SLRs. My professional uncle had Mamiyas and Studios. Both took amazing photos and applied their tools to create lasting images that many have treasured for a generation.
That stuck with me. The ability to freeze a moment in time and keep it just how I remembered it fascinated me. I spent years playing with my mom’s camera until she decided to start getting my sister and me some cameras of our own. It started with little 110mm point and shoots, and some even came with built-in flashes! When mom couldn’t get us more film or we couldn’t wait to spend our allowances, we got disposable 35mm cameras from the drug stores. As I got into high school at Perrysburg, classes became available to me to learn the entire photographic process from loading and developing our own film to lessons and projects that put us through the paces of taking proper photos in varied settings. That’s when my uncle decided to help me do it right, and loaned me a 35mm Canon AE-1 SLR camera.
For a few semesters there, I dove in head first with my voracious new hobby and bought a lot of film and photo paper, spending a lot of the money I was making bagging groceries at Churchill’s and bussing tables at Belmont Country Club. Eventually I passed the AE-1 on to my sister for her to do the same, and photography took a back seat to life as I went off to college and spent my time attending and organizing events that I didn’t often take an interest in documenting. Times were a little different before cellphone cameras were everywhere, and taking a camera along without proper credentials often meant entry refusal to many places where I would have wanted to take photos at anyways. Sure, I brought a little point and shoot along occasionally to events and was definitely part of the monumental transition from film to digital imaging. But there was no love or passion for photography superseding the myriad distractions I surrounded myself with. My high school dalliances with photography had kindled a fire, but I wasn’t quite ready to continue feeding that fire and photography smoldered in my world for years.
All of that changed for me, like so many others, with the growth of the cellphone camera. As the 2000s neared a close and cellphones weren’t just an accessory anymore, something changed where that camera not everyone could bring everywhere with them not only became socially acceptable, it became commonplace. Eventually the ubiquity of cellphones and the ever-present camera attached meant I had no reasons or excuses to not have a camera with me at all times. They say the best camera out there is the one you have on you, and that’s as true as anything I’ve ever found out for myself. My childhood love of exotic cars found me at car shows when I was living in Houston, and the cellphone in my pocket – doubling as the camera I had on me – got that smoldered love for photography smoking. Attention from local Houston television stations to use my photos as web content got that love burning a little bit again.
I wasn’t the only one who saw the smoke, and when my mom and sister bought me a Sony a6000 mirrorless digital camera to add some fuel to my little fire, the fire spread fast and put me on my current trajectory. The a6000 was something I had already had on my personal Amazon shopping list, but when my family turned that into a gift list item and made it a reality, I really hoped I had chosen the right tool for the job.
The biggest challenge I had was that I didn’t know what the job was. So I made one up and turned my cellphone car photos into something so much more. For what I do having a smaller camera with all the features of a much larger DSLR is the best of both worlds. As far as tools go, the a6000 is like a Victorinox Swiss Army Knife. Is it the best tool for every situation? No. But can it do a little something in most given situations? Absolutely.
So with the experience I’ve gained over the last couple of years and the foundation of photography I’ve had for over half of my life, I have found ways around the limitations of a tool that’s not the best for every job and can come up with a solution. Going forth with this knowledge and experience, I have plans to upgrade soon to a full frame Sony mirrorless digital camera. Of all of the cameras I have used over 30+ years, this is the family I’m happy to adopt myself into. Not only am I already invested in an ecosystem with many interchangeable parts, but I’ve surprised even myself with the capabilities I’ve been able to coax out of a lesser model crop sensor camera. I can only imagine what I can do with an even more capable tool built in the same mode.
Remember those people I mentioned before and what they say about the best camera out there? Those same people also say that the camera doesn’t make the photographer. While I’m pretty sure “they” are going to be right about that one too, I know enough on my own to also apply the lesson I started this post with to get my own takeaway here. There’s a tool for every job. My aspirations are big, and I’m going to need to be capable of doing an even better job to match those aspirations. An inadequate tool can only do so much, even with the ways around that experience can teach me. To make that all a reality, I’m going to need a better tool to do the jobs I want to be considered for. While my a6000 will still be in my repertoire as I move forward, unlike the AE-1 my little Sony will still be in regular use when applicable. Digital photography is the path I have chosen and I want to be the best I can be at that. While I don’t believe a better camera will make me a better photographer, it will make this photographer better through capabilities. There’s only one way to prove that, so stay tuned.
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