Gear Does(n't) Matter

This is something that everyone in the photography world hears constantly. I've been thinking about it a lot lately. To me it seems more like an inhibitor than a helpful phrase. Obviously you need to understand the basics before you can consistently create compelling images, and that is more than likely why people started saying it, but I think that most people don't really think about it before they say it.

The situation that brings me to this topic is photographing softball. I've photographed several games, but my photos are consistently below my own standards. Upon analyzing this situation, there is one thing that stands out that really does matter. Gear.

A couple of posts back I talked about my situation with photographing softball. The games usually take place late in the evening or at night when the lighting is less than ideal. This is where the gear comes into play. To faithfully shoot these types of situations with low light, fast moving subjects, and a decent distance between you and the subject you need equipment with high ISO handling, a long focal length, and fast aperture.

It's during these types of situations when hearing "gear doesn't matter" is discouraging. It makes a person think that the reason they can't get a good photo at an event is because they are bad photographers, which is certainly not (always) the case.

Now I should state that I'm not trying to give excuses for buying the "best" simply because you want it. I'm just saying that there are certain situations where gear does matter to an extent. I also feel that beginners should not simply buy more and more gear thinking it will make them better. Learn the basics. Learn what you like. Then buy gear that suits what you need it for.

Rogue Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale

For those of you who don't know, I am a bit of a beer freak. I love trying new beers, especially unique and unusual recipes. Last week I ordered a bottle of Rogue Ale's Voodoo Doughnut Bacon Maple Ale. Rogue and Voodoo Doughnut, a Portland based doughnut bakery, teamed up to make a beer that is supposed to taste just like the doughnut it is named after. The beer arrived today, but I'm saving it for the weekend. It should be interesting to say the least.

Where does photography come into this? Well, I decided to try my hand at product photography with this unique bottle. I wanted the background to be completely black so I set up a backdrop of black felt. I placed the bottle on black glass to keep the black theme but also to show a reflection. I used a two point lighting set up. This was my first time trying anything like this so it took me several shots to get the lighting decent. A diagram of the final set up can be seen here. It's not exact, but you can get the general idea.

Here is the final result:

Moon 2 and an Update

A few days ago there was a full moon and clear skies. I decided to take another moon shot with my new Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM. Shot at 400mm with an aperture of f/11. Here it is:

I adjusted the contrast and used a high pass filter with a hard light blending mode to bring out the details.

My last full moon shoot can be seen here.

On another note, it's been a while since I last posted (over three months, where'd the time go?) During that time I acquired the Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM mentioned above and have primarily been shooting softball with it. I'm still building up my chops when it comes to shooting sports, so I haven't gotten many good photos (decent even), but so goes the learning process. The hardest part about shooting softball is that the games usually take place late in the evening or at night which, even with the stadium lights, gives me less than ideal light to work with. Also, the Rebel T3 that I use does not handle higher ISOs very well so most of my pictures turn out fairly grainy on top of being blurry.

Anyway, here are some other photos that I have taken since my last update:














The rest of my photography can be seen on my Flickr. Feel free to comment and critique.