It’s been a while hey ? Life is pretty chaotic for so many people and this summer (?) has been a full on one, I can’t recall the last time I felt inspired or motivated enough to be able to take time to actually blab on here, and then today, a moment of clarity got me thinking.
As aviation photographers, hobbyists whatever we label ourselves, we are offered an overwhelming choice of technology and gizmos to allow us to aim for the best images we can take, but what stage does the technology overtake the natural ability of the photographer holding the camera?
I upgraded a couple years ago to the canon r7, and its a choice Im still happy with, albeit there are issues Canon need to figure out (rolling shutter) and hopefully will, with the Canon R7mk2 which everybody is salivating over, even though there are no clear details of if and when it is being developed or being released, I digress
At first I was hopeful the extra Megapixels and fast frame rate when shooting would help bring me results I craved but within weeks I realised that no matter what camera I use, if I don’t have a solid grasp of the basic fundamentals its a pointless exercise.
Cameras are being released, lenses also, with features that 5 or 10 years ago would have been unheard of. I hear people complain there aren’t enough stops of image stabilisation, the buffer too slow, the focus not sharp enough, add infinitum. Im guilty of thinking some of these also, however I can (with my grand old age) hark back to a time where it was film cameras and you were lucky if the camera auto wound the film, let alone had a sleeve full of wizardry to help you take a better picture!
Now we are offered cameras with frame rates in the 30s, so in theory the cabbage user only has to get the subject in frame and bit the law of averages will end up with at least one shot in focus ready to adorn social media for the plaudits of “great shot” ……. is it though?
This image is then mangled through ever more torture with editing software that can “fix” the shot…. why not just take a better picture than have AI sort out your shortfalls?
Generally the planes, helicopters I shoot pics of aren’t uber sleek smooth machines, they have panels, rivets, screws, bolts whatever holding them together,
When you see a post of a plane with seemingly none of that, and any details like serials or panel numbers are just a smudge of what AI thinks it says, frankly it just looks fake and I scroll on past on my merry way.
The ability to mash the shutter for seconds on end and come away with 1 or 2 keepers out of 60 or 70 shots isn’t a great return (I feel), the flip side of this is I can think of plenty of hobbyists still using “older generation ‘ equipment and they produce superb shots that the uber new kit gets close too but the skill of the user is what has made the shot, not the gear.
So what stage does a camera or lens or combo of both actually make the user just a breathing bipod that presses the shutter ?