Purging: Cameras
I’ve always been into cameras. I shot some weddings in college to pay bills, shot product lines for some smaller clothing brands, and even now I take headshots for friends. I also shoot all of my own product photos for my work, which is digital for web. I have a couple projects I’ve been working on for a few years now, and I shoot film for those. Basically, I had 2 50lb backpacks of gear, and needed to clean it out next.
One of the most important tools you have in simplifying your life is the list. Writing lists can help you organize and visualize information, which make coming to conclusions much easier. In choosing what cameras I really needed, I simply wrote down a list of when I use cameras most:
Work
Fun
Travel
And then I wrote down the camera I use most in each scenario:
Work: DSLR
Fun: 6x6 Medium Format
Travel: 35MM Point and Shoot
Now, I understand I could do everything with a DSLR. However, simplification is not so much about sacrifice as it is getting rid of distraction to become more productive. Photography is tied with leather work at the top of my “Passionate Hobby” list, and I’m simplifying so that I have more time to enjoy these hobbies. These three cameras will allow me to do everything I want to do in photography, while physically being a small, easily packable and maintainable kit.
My 6x6 kit is really simple: a camera, a wide angle lens for landscape, and a portrait lens for portraits.
My point and shoot is a point and shoot, self contained
My DSLR was a giant bag filled with lenses and “just in case” objects.
The thing with lenses is this: 99% of people only need one. You can get perfectly useable, memorable images of any subject on earth with one lens that is somewhere in the 35mm-50mm range. You can make life really easy by upping to 2: a telephoto zoom, and a wide/medium zoom. By keeping restrictions on your kit, you’ll be forced to do exactly what you’re trying to do by taking photos: think outside the box to make creative images. I decided to keep only my 50mm and one flash, and sold the rest (that’s 5 other lenses, 2 flashes, radio transmitters, and umbrellas, all of which I hadn’t used in months or years!), yeilding $1200 towards the TPStD.
Like my wardrobe, my kit is now very bare. Again, this allows me a blank slate, and to update and fill in gaps in my kit. My plan is to upgrade my DSLR, because mine is 7 years old, to something with video and better low light performance. I’m going to have 2 lenses in my kit: a 24mm and a 50mm. I chose these because I like prime, non zoom lenses. I’m only going to do close up work with my DSLR, shooting interviews and documenting products, so if I need to zoom I’ll just get closer!
With the exception of digital SLR bodies and some digital flashes, quality camera equipment can be seen as an investment. If you purchase lightly used equipment and take care of it, you can pretty much count on getting most, if not all of your money back if you ever decide to sell. Right now, this is the same for medium format cameras. About 5 years ago they hit an all time low, and all of the photographers from the 80’s and early 90’s lost thousands if they had waited to sell. Then my generation decided to try them out, and they spiked a few hundred dollars. Now they’ve seemingly evened out and have been at a steady, fair price for a year or two.
Total Purging Savings to Date (TPStD): $1500
