Why Buying a New Camera Will Not Make You a Better Photographer

Learn to see the picture without a camera first

New cameras will not make you a worse photographer unless you’re confused by its amazing new technology. Then you might pay more attention to the camera than to the picture. That can happen and often does.

Unfortunately, there are so many new cameras with amazing features; we’re all left drooling over what we don’t have. Shouldn’t we be learning how to make better use of what we have?

I know, there are some pictures where you really need that cool new feature available only in the newest camera, but do you even take those kinds of pictures? What is the one thing you can do to improve your photography?

“A great camera can’t make a great photograph, any more than a great typewriter can write a great novel.” — Peter Adams

Learn

No, I don’t mean “learn” how to control your camera. Of course, you should learn the basics of exposure and focus and how to control them on your camera. I mean something more meaningful.

Learn from the masters, the photographers who had limited equipment and produced amazing results. Think of the pictures that attracted you to photography in the first place. How did they do it without that new fandangled techno-camera?

“It is an illusion that photos are made with the camera… they are made with the eye, heart and head.” — Henri Cartier-Bresson

They learned how to see.

The great photographers we admire can visualize a picture before they even pick up their camera. They have developed the habit of seeing the light, shadow, composition, and gesture that make a great photo.

The great photographers of yesteryear paid more attention to the subject and the image than to the features of the camera they’re using. They had to. Cameras were simple then.

They learned how to use the camera, and then they didn’t even think about it anymore. They thought about the image. It’s like a carpenter who swings a hammer. If he looks at the hammer, he’ll probably hit his thumb. Instead, he looks at the nail and the hammer becomes an extension of his hand.

What camera did the photographer use? What lens was it? What ISO setting did they choose? None of that matters. Tools do not build a house. The carpenter builds it.

The habit of controlling their equipment became second nature. What mattered most was not the equipment, it was the image.

“It’s not the camera that makes a good picture, but the eye and the mind of the photographer.” — Richard Avedon

What can we learn from this?

• Learn the habit of seeing. Visualize the picture without your camera.
• Develop enough skill with your equipment that you don’t have to think about it. It’s an extension of your eye.
• Create a habit of seeing peak moments in front of you. Every moment has a point in time that says something. Learn to see it.

Look at lots of great pictures. That includes paintings or any other visual art that you admire. Many of the best photographers learned to paint before they learned photography.

By developing the habits of great photographers, you will see more, even without a camera. You’ll see moments that used to pass you by, but now they have the potential to express something.

You can have what you think is the best equipment, and it doesn’t help if you can’t see. It takes years to understand how to see. It just takes doing it over and over and over. One of the reasons I’m still doing it is I love to do it. I love to look. — Annie Leibovitz

What paintbrush did Vincent Van Gogh use when he painted The Starry Night? It doesn’t really matter. A paintbrush is a tool.

Develop your vision, and your camera becomes just a tool to help you reproduce what you’ve already created in your mind.

Then, if you choose, you can buy your new camera.

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