Big Camera
A couple weekends ago I was wandering around a festival when someone approached and asked if I was part of the events team.
No, why do you ask?
Because of the camera.
I was carrying a Canon R6. Almost everyone was taking photos all around, but almost everyone was using their phones. I didn’t see any other big cameras.
She asked if I would take a photo of her and her friend. Sure, why not?
They posed like it was a professional photoshoot. It seemed to be to them a great novelty.
Her first idea for sharing the photos was to take a photo of the screen on the back of my camera with her phone. I said that won’t look very good. Her second idea was to get my TikTok. Like the decrepit prehistoric Luddite that I am, I suggested she just email me, and I’d email her back.
It worked just fine. No apps, no scrolling, no algorithms.
It sometimes seems that every angle and space in the world is so densely photographed already that there’s hardly any point left in photography. But apparently ~nobody is doing it with big cameras any more. At least, amongst amateurs. I get it. I don’t carry the big camera as often as I used to.
It’s easy to get lulled into a sense of good-enough by phone screens, on which smartphone photos can look as good as big camera photos. On the immersive high-DPI electronic wallpaper of the future, I think we’ll come to miss the quality that you can only get with big sensors and big lenses.
Or maybe still photography itself will be considered quaint - obsoleted by personal drone clouds taking continuous Gaussian splat video for 24/7 instant replay.
Email will probably still be a fine way to send the results though.
photography
Add a comment
As someone also with an R6, I feel awkward bringing my camera around for much the reason described here: it makes me stand out. I need to get over the fear of being perceived — because having a proper photograph of something truly goes a long way over a standard phone capture.
I made a point to, however, bring it to any family event, so if there is something photo worthy I can try and get the best possible photo of it.
Back to the index