A photographer I follow on YouTube has an interesting approach on new gear. He doesn’t push the newest and most expensive gear at you, nor does he even condone you buying it. He is a high end commercial photographer yet he uses equipment that most of us consider obsolete. Why? Because it does the job well and it is inexpensive.

I recently observed a conversation in a Facebook group where a person asked opinions regarding a quite high end PC he was considering for photo editing. He immediately began getting bombarded with opinions on why he should buy MAC and not that PC.

I’m so tired of the whole scene, I’m tired of the snobbery among photographers. I do follow YouTube photographers as I love to learn the craft but honestly, it’s like watching commercials for new and gear that I can’t afford and frankly, don’t need. They can’t even talk about their camera without rhyming off the brand and model of it.

In the real world, not all of us can afford the newest and greatest gear and that’s fine because it’s the photographer not the camera, right? I don’t have one of the new mirrorless bodies and to tell you the truth, I doubt I ever will. Picture quality hasn’t improved really, it’s mostly features that have changed and mostly to do with video, which I don’t do.

Another interesting observation Scott (Tin House Studio) made a point of the fact that if he troubles himself too much with the technical aspect of photography, it can kill the creative part of the job which is what he gets paid for in the first place. I immediately thought of myself as I worry far too much about the technical aspect and not enough about the creativity part.