Many times I get a comment from someone who sees my photographs like, “Wow, that’s a beautiful picture. You must have a really good camera”. It is common for people, who don’t understand what goes into creating a photograph, to think all a photographer does is frame, focus and push a button.

Also, I get many friends asking me what is the best camera they should buy. This is what leads me to the topic of this post. The camera doesn’t make the photograph. The photographer makes the photograph and the tool is a camera.

It is interesting to me when people think the camera made the photograph. No one asks the chef at a restaurant what type of oven they use, or tell a textile artist they must have an amazing loom.

Here’s the thing… it doesn’t matter what type of camera is used to make a great photograph. What DOES matter is knowing what kind of photograph I want to make. What is the creative vision? That’s where a photographer starts. I ask myself these questions before I make some photographs.

• What is my end goal for distributing the images?
  • Big prints
  • Family scrap book
  • Social media
  • Magazine
• What am I trying to say with my photographs?
  • Tell a visual story
  • Create emotion with the photographs
  • Capture memories
• What am I photographing?
  • Landscapes
  • Sports
  • Travel
  • Portraits
  • Street

Thinking through some of these questions helps me figure out what the best tool (camera) is to achieve my creative vision for the photograph. For example, if I plan on shooting grand landscapes my needs are very different than when I am shooting candid street photographs. For the landscapes a high quality lens, large sensor/film system could be important. (Unless the goal is to shoot soft ethereal, interpretative landscape photographs. Then a Holga camera may be perfect.) In the case of a street photograph a simple fully automatic point and shoot camera may be perfect for the quick indiscrete capture.

Today’s cameras are awesome feats of technology. So many features that can meet almost any need. Almost. The only things a photographer needs in a camera is the ability to control ISO, shutter speed, aperture and focus. That’s really it. But all cameras have their strengths and weaknesses and knowing what those help me know what camera to use to make a photograph that I am after.

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