I’ve been working in a camera shop now for around 5 months, and I’ve learnt one thing. People who only care about cameras are really fucking boring.
I do not care about megapixels, AF points, hell, I don’t even care all that much about sensor size. I care about photography, which means I care about your photos, not the camera you used to make the thing. Many of my colleagues, sadly, care far too much about cameras and study the newest Sony or DJI drone that does the exact same thing as the last one. This is not a bad thing on their behalf, however, as it is their job, and they are all very, very good at it.
Me? I don’t have the passion like I once had for tech or cameras, sadly. I lost that a long time ago. I care about other, much more fun things, and just have a bank of knowledge on cameras I use for work. This is my point for this blog post. If you love to create and take photographs, that is absolutely great, and the world needs more of you. However, it should not be ALL you do. Many of the true greats in photography are not just photographers or camera nerds. They certainly would not sit around discussing tech specs of cameras either.
Specs are dull; cameras are simply tools. Have you ever heard a mason talking about a chisel? How about a poet talk about a pen or a notepad? Didn't think so. Yet for some reason, photographers have to talk about the camera they use, and I find it to be totally pointless. Those talks are just dickswinging contests to show either one knows more than the other, or one has a better setup than the other.
Funnily enough, this kind of attitude doesn’t get me many sales when I express it to customers, but I do get to leave the office every day with my dignity. I concern myself with other interests during the day, as others all log in to DPReview or some other source of information, where they learn only about YouTubers' thoughts on the latest thing they are being paid to shill as if it has reinvented the wheel. I sit and watch videos about motorcycles, camping, travelling, but mostly not photography stuff.
This means I can have conversations about things other than photography or cameras, which, in my very minor experience in making friends, is quite a good skill to have. It also works with photography, as mostly the people you photograph don’t know anything about cameras or really care. Because they are normal, well-functioning humans (probably).
So go find other interests; cameras are all the same, just forget about them. Find something really fun and then use your photography skills to capture it. That's what life is really about, not sitting around wanking over megapixels. Peace and love.
