Could You Pass Me the Wrench Please?

If it wasn’t for your brain you would have no idea how to work a wrench… am I right? This one is for my artist friends…

So let’s talk about this logically. Many photographers walk around with visually impressive equipment and receive compliments like ‘that looks like one helluva camera’ or ‘sweet set up!’…. and it always feels nice to get a compliment on almost any level. Some people may also think in the back of their minds that ‘if I had a camera like that I could be a great photographer too!’. The fact that people think this way is a little disturbing but let’s unpack this concept a bit. This morning I had to call BG&E Home Service to make an appointment for a technichian to come fix a small leak on the front of our dishwasher. Just like him I have a toolbox with screwdrivers, clamps, wrenches and more….. but to watch me flail about on the kitchen floor turning a wrench vs watching the tech would probably be a world of difference right? The tech has experience and knows exactly what he or she is doing and I literally still wonder how the dishwasher drains the water so no matter how nice and impressive my wrench looks I’m not nearly as good with it as the tech is.

So can we accept the fact that a seasoned photographer with a lesser grade camera is still better than a novice with the ‘bells and whistles’ camera? Can we also point out that a seasoned photographer with a ‘bells and whistles’ setup is a beautiful thing to watch work? So aside from the obvious what are we really talking about? What makes the major difference between the those two scenarios? Some may call it “experience” or “knowledge” and both would be correct but for today I am simply going to refer to it as your “brain”…. the real camera…. not the “wrench” in your hands.

Your eyes are what allow you to see and evaluate a scene to be shot. Your brain does the evaluating,

Your hands are what allow you to make adjustments to your “wrench” to make sure the scene is being documented the way you want it to. Your brain is telling your hands what to do based on what your eyes perceived and told your brain.

Your imagination and intuition?….. all brain! The knowledge gained in the past to put this all together is all in your brain and not in your hands or eyes. So at the end of the day, no matter how many compliments your camera may get, YOU did this and don’t let anyone take that fact away from you or underhandedly degrade the work your brain does to achieve your captures by thinking they could do it so easily if they had a setup like your’s. Fact is, they would need your brain to pull it off… so charge accordingly. Heard?

-7

p.s. I hope this threw a “wrench” in the way some people think.

My TooL Bag…. full of wrenches. It doesn't make me though….. I make it.