The camera is just a tool. You still have to find the subject or thing to shoot. Photography is about light. You still have to find the thing in the right light or create that light. Photography is about composing. You still have to put things in the frame that make a point. Photography, like art, is the eloquence of an idea, but the idea has to be about society, about life, something sublime, something that evokes catharsis. Again, the camera is only a tool, not the thing known as photography or art. Sure, the camera can do a great job of averaging light, focusing it, whatever you want, but again photography’s just a tool. You have to know how to use the tool, which has never changed, to get what you want, or you can use the tool to come up with something and accept the results. Here is a link to my favorite image:
It was shot with a Canon AE1 with a $35 24mm lens purchased at a drug store. It didn’t matter that the lens was cheap. It was good enough. I simply took the picture. I found the image. It was just sitting there waiting for someone to take it.
Here is another one of those images that I found, no manipulation. It was just there. I pointed and shot:
Here is a link to a whole book shot with the same camera or a Sony Mavica 4 Megapixel camera:
Again, the camera is just a tool.
