Whatever our work, we are constantly looking for the best tools to do so.
If you are a driver you will look for a new car that is more enjoyable to drive, if you are a musician, you will look for a new instrument with a better sound, if you are a photographer, you will be looking for a new camera able to produce better images.
Are we sure improvement is just in a new tool?
Compulsive purchases
I confess it, I am a compulsive buyer and I undergo the charm of every new stuff on my personal and professional horizon. But over the years, I have fortunately found a medicine for this chronic compulsive purchase illness, maturing the awareness of being able to live with less, much less, paying attention to the essence of things , to what it takes to be satisfied while working, and happy in life.
Sony A9 vs Canon 5Ds vs Nikon D5 vs … all of us …
Nevertheless, I keep myself constantly up to date on what’s new in photography: the new Canon 5ds and its 50Mpixel sensor, the new Sony A9 and its 20 frames per second, the Nikon D5 and its stunning ISO performance, the new Nikon 105mm lens 1.4 and. ..
… and go to hell , let’s shoot that damn photo !
The best version of myself
In the end, what makes us a better lawyer, a better employee, and of course a better photographer, is already with us, no additional tools needed. Simplifying what we use to pursue our results, subtracting instead of adding, we can slow down, take a good breath and express what we are best in, without any technical or technological distraction, without complications or calculations, using only what it makes us uniquely us: our sensitivity , our emotions and our thoughts.
Focusing on our photographic industry, it’s far more better to continue using a two years old camera body we are used to, it’s better to use only one fixed lens using our own feet to frame, rather than overload ourserlves with two or three zoom lenses.
Any of us is responsible for our own achievements, our own successes as of our own failures we frequently hide behind an easy alibi of inappropriate tools. I do not say a better tool, a better camera does not help, but a heart and a brain on the right side, are definitely more useful.
Henri Cartier-Bresson, Ansel Adams, Robert Capa used tin cans with connected optics, if we compare what they had with today’s cameras, and the concept can be easily extended to any art or human activity, to any display of genius from the past, once again to confirm that the man and the person matters, not the instrument.
The best camera ever
So I’m ready to buy a new camera, the ultimate tool.
I do not think it will be a Sony A9, a Canon or a Nikon … the best camera ever, will be the one that will turn on my brain and will contain a human heart, mine.
Maurizio Mannini
