It’s Not the Gear. It’s THE MINDSET.
We photographers and our gear are probably not living up to its the fullest attainable potential. Whether or not you have a full fledge DSLR or a simple first gen EOS-M with a kit lens. I can almost guarantee we have not explored all of our devices potential. Just like with our actual bodies, if we don’t push ourselves to know what we can do we won’t know where we can go. If you are anything like me when new gear comes out we get all glossy eyed thinking about this feature and that feature and what it means we could do. In reality though, we could probably get there or, reasonably close, with your current set up.
The problem is, this takes work and most of us prefer to take the easy route, even if that means spending thousands of dollars on a new body stuffed with tons of new features, or switching systems all together (God that Sony system is tempting).It doesn’t mean we will get any closer to our goals. Take the Canon 5D Mark IV Dual Pixel RAW feature. “You mean to tell me I can change focus in post?!” That sounds great, but if we take some time and work on our focusing skills and its mechanics our photographs will vastly improve across the board, impressing more clients, which makes more money, and all while saving yourself $3500 (at the time of this article). Looking to a piece of gear to fix our own shortcomings can be the right call when we actually need to upgrade, but taking those short cuts, when unnecessary, will leave us weaker compared to our competitors who do push themselves.
Now look, I’m not saying don’t buy a new camera body or that new 70-200 portrait lens. We just need to be sure we aren’t compensating for poor skill or knowledge with gear. When the time comes and we do find ourselves pushing agains the limits of our gear absolutely get out there and buy it! By then you will know what you need and what gear will get you there!