Pencil of Light
Or should I ask, "Do you carry your camera?" I can say in all honesty that I have never taken a worthwhile picture at a time when I did not have my camera with me.
Since 1969 I have almost never left home without a camera hanging by its strap over my left shoulder and cradled in my left hand. My family refers to it as my growth.
Of course, if I go out specifically for the purpose of making photographs I will carry more equipment. If I'm working on a book or magazine assignment, for instance, I will usually carry a bag with at least two camera bodies and three to five lenses. But one of those cameras will be out of the bag and over my shoulder where I can get to it quickly. On a commercial assignment I will probably be carrying four or five bags holding lights, light stands, and other gear.
My everyday carry camera these days is the Fuji X-T20. But over the years I've carried cameras as small as the tiny Olympus E-PL1 and as large as a Pentax 6x7. Which, as it happened, was what I was carrying one late afternoon when I was walking around our little farm in northwest Georgia's McLemore Cove. The setting sun was coming between two hills and casting a narrow band of light that almost appeared to originate at the little cattle feeder.
I wasn't out and about for the purpose of making pictures, but if I saw something interesting, I had my camera with me. I was ready. And that's the secret to making good pictures.
I say "secret," but truly,there are no deep, dark secrets in photography. There is no magic in buying newer and better cameras and lenses. As the master photographer Elliott Erwitt said, "All the technique in the world doesn't compensate for the inability to notice things." And, “Nothing happens when you sit at home. I always make it a point to carry a camera with me at all times."
Great advice. And I practice it.
(Pentax 6x7 camera, 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens, and Fujicrome 100 film.)
Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia
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Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.
Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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