Your Most Important Piece Of Equipment... And It Isn't In Your Camera Bag!

Here is a short story to start off this post. This story is from Adorama.com

"One of the most successful photographers of the 20th century, Henri Cartier-Bresson, had a single camera--a Leica rangefinder--and a 50mm lens. He didn't even have a light meter. He shot black-and-white film, hand-holding for every frame. He stopped every 36 exposures to rewind and reload. He had to wait until that night or the next day, or perhaps longer, to process the negatives, make contact sheets and study them with a Magnifying loupe to see the results. And with that simple set-up, he built a body of work that would influence generations of photographers and help to define photojournalism."  ~ Mason Resnick

With that being said... Nowadays, cameras offer many, many sophisticated options. Artificial intelligence-based metering, auto exposure and autofocus, super long zoom lenses, and super fast burst rates just to name a few. But with all these technical innovations we still forget to use the most important piece of equipment, our brains. The camera companies have yet to create a camera that can compose a shot, or see how colors, light, and shape interact, but unfortunately we still seem to rely on the camera, itself, to create a great shot. Unfortunately, the camera is only capable of making a correct exposure. So it is still up to our brains to modify the exposure to fit the mood of the picture, or to find the proper placement of the camera to produce the proper shot, or to decide what to leave in or remove from the frame.

So as you can see, just like Henri Cartier-Bresson, we need to use our brains to create the next great shot. So it doesn't matter if you are using the latest top-of-the-line DSLR, a compact, or a film camera don't forget to use your most important piece of equipment ... your brain.