Category: Photography

Whenever there is a new camera announced by one vendor, the owners of the older cameras from this vendor or other vendors all suffer from one disease – and I call this “I-Need-To-Buy-A-New-Camera”.

For example, Canon just released the new DSLR 5D, then many Canon 10D and 20D owners all believe they need to dump the current camera and buy the new one.

Same to other camera owners, Nikon and Olympus camera forums all packed with comments like “Wow, I need to get one !!”, “Geez, my camera is now obsoleted!!” …

Come on, your current camera can still take good photos, why change ? Will you buy a new car because GM, Ford, Toyota released new cars last week ? Will you buy a new house because there is a new one next block ?

Lesson Learnt: People shoot good photos, not camera.

This is probably the most popular question in all photo forums – “What are the settings?”. You know, whenever someone posted a good picture, forum goers will then post that.

• What are the aperture setting, shutter speed ?
• What is the ISO, what is the zoom range, what is the flash setting etc. etc. ?

I am always puzzled by that kind of questions. You know, we shall ask “Why” questions instead of “What” questions, such as why you took the picture this way, why you set the aperture to F4.0 etc. etc. ? You can learn from good pictures only if you know the Why’s …

I mean, will you take a good picture if you know the setting, even though you’re in the same spot at the exact same time ?

Lesson Learnt: Why ? Why not ?

I use SLR, DSLR, P&S DC and P&S film cameras. All sorts of camera, but I reckon what matter is not what camera I use, but what photograph I take. And that’s why I really don’t understand why some “experts” believe you need the newest and greatest camera to take great pictures.

People keep talking about how many mega-pixels their cameras have, how good is their flashes, how many frames can take in one second … I mean, is it really matter ?

People ask, can a P&S DC shoot like a pro ? Let me tell you, a pro is a pro because of his / her skill, not the camera. And the proof is here … photos by Alex Majoli. He takes all his photo with P&S DCs. Amazing, isn’t it ?

Lesson Learnt: Spend more time to take photos, instead of comparing specifications.

I still don’t know how it’s done.

Last year I was in New York and wandering around the Ground Zero. I headed up and saw something really new to me … I saw some tiny clouds were created on-the-fly …

These clouds slowly “printed” a letter, then a word, then a sentence just like an aged old dot-matrix printer. What puzzled me was I could not find a plane, a kite or any device !! So here is the photo …

Lesson Learnt: Look up.