TRANSCRIPT:

Welcome to Tyler’s Tips. Today I’m gonna be talking about why you do not need to buy a new camera.

So, I get this question all the time, “Tyler, I need to buy a new camera. What camera should I buy?” And my response to that is, if you have a camera already, you don’t need to buy one. There are some exceptions, but the vast majority of the time, if we’re trying to improve our photography, buying a camera is, if anything, is probably gonna actually slow us down. It’s probably not gonna help. I’m gonna elaborate on this a little bit.

So, we live in a time when all the cameras manufactured in the last five years are great, almost universally. I mean, there are some really cheapo, junky things that maybe aren’t so great, but we live in the time of the cell phone. These things are awesome. They take great photos. This camera, I can stick in my pocket. I take this thing when I’m camping because I don’t wanna lug around my big DSLR’s and this produces image quality that is phenomenal. By 10 years ago standards, this would have been an unbelievably awesome camera. Of course, this is what I shoot with.

I will hit straight on the idea that, “Oh, it’s easy for you to say, you don’t need a new camera or a fancy camera. Look what you’re shooting with.” Yeah, I do shoot with these big, fancy cameras, and they have huge advantages for me as a professional photographer. Most of that, those advantages lie in the fact that they’re extremely fast and extremely reliable. So, I don’t miss shots, and I don’t have equipment failures that make it so that I’m not able to deliver for my clients. Because I charge thousands of dollars to do this, and so when I’m shooting, it’s just not an option for me to not deliver. But, not missing a photo is completely different then creating a good photo in the first place, and you can hit every single one in focus every single time, and if they’re not good photos, it’s a waste of everything. It’s a waste of this camera. It’s a waste of your time. It would be a waste of my client’s money and time. So, the quality of the camera is really secondary to the creative work that goes in to making a great photo.

And, this is why I say don’t buy a new camera. If you’ve got time and money to invest, invest that time in your craft. Invest in understanding composition. Invest time in really exploring what are you trying to say with our photography. What stories are you trying to tell? And if you’re not getting the results you want, how can you change the way you’re going about it to create stories that you are gonna be excited about. And if you can’t figure that out on your own, find somebody to help you. Find a mentor. Take workshops. There’s a place to invest money. Take workshops with photographers that you think are amazing. And learn, because if you do that, and all you do it with is this, you can create some amazing work. These things are actually really good cameras.

If you do at some point want to get to place where you want to spend this many thousands of dollars on a camera, by all means, do it. They’re fabulous cameras. I love these things and they’re bulletproof. You can drop them, you can dip them in the water. They just keep on going. I love these things, for that. But, they don’t take good pictures, photographers take good pictures. So, if you want better photos, invest in this, invest here. That’s what’s gonna really take you to an exciting place with your photography. Which camera you use is totally secondary.

So I hope this was a helpful tip. As always, thank you very much for your time. And if you have any ideas or questions you’d like me to explore, just leave comment below or shoot me an email and I’ll work it into a future episode. Until next time.