February 11, 2007: Loyal listener and frequent contributor to The Digital Photography Show, Allen Rockwell, writes for an Aperture blog for O’Reilly Media.

He just posted a very interesting blog entry that challenges an age-old cliché about photography:

“It’s the photographer that takes the picture, not the camera”

This is a very popular saying, and a lot of people agree with it ….. but I’m going to play devil’s advocate and take the opposite opinion tonight.

Some people take the saying one step further and say that you can hand a cheap camera to a good photographer and he or she will come back with beautiful shots … but you cannot hand an amateur $10,000 of camera equipment and expect the same results. There is certainly some logic to that statement but I don’t agree 100% with it.

Yes, it’s true that the photographer is the one that sees the image before him or her and recognizes it’s artistic value and decides to take the photo, how to compose it, what angle to shoot at, etc. … but I think the camera and all it’s accessories do make a huge difference

Well, yeah, I agree with Allen that the camera and it’s accessories make a difference, but as to him challenging the central thesis of “It’s the photographer that takes the picture, not the camera,” I think he’s wrong. (Sorry Allen!)

You can read Allen’s post here, as well my response and those of others. You should leave one of your own, too - it’s an interesting debate and I’m glad Allen brought it up.

Scott

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 11th, 2007 at 10:21 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.