It's amazing how equipment can change you.



Disclaimer: This is a personal experience post, and has less to do with photography tips or techniques but more to do with personal revelations.

I recently noticed that my photography was changing. At least in terms of how I shot and the kinds of shots that I make. I'm a relatively shy person in public with strangers, and I used to hate pointing the camera at people who weren't asking me to take their photos. However, this is all changing. Why? It's a little unusual to put it this way, but the answer is: new gear.

I'm not going to brag a particular model or camera brand, but with my former cameras and gear, I felt like I was wielding a giant weapon in front of my face when I used it. I always had remembered the looks of concern from people who saw me pointing a huge lens at them when shooting in public venues and weddings. It made me feel awkward and guilty, and in time, I found myself becoming MORE shy because of it. This meant that I was losing great moments out of the fear of being noticed.

Enter in my new camera system and gear. The cameras are smaller and so are the lenses. This gear has somehow given me courage to be more social with my camera. In fact, it starts many of it's own conversations due to how cool it looks. Ironically, even though the camera is small and gives me more confidence to use it for candid work, I find that it does get noticed more. Kind of an unusual thing but the taker from this whole post is that sometimes new gear can help or change your photography. At least it did mine.

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