Listening to Rema – Charm
Does Gear really matter? I have to say, this is one of those questions that has been fighting to be answered in the creative space for the longest time.
But then no one has really given a final verdict to this question.
While one group says “the gear you use matters” another group holds the opinion that “the gear you use doesn’t matter at all but instead what matters is your skill set and your creativity”.
While these answers are neither right nor wrong, in fact they go hand in hand. You can’t even agree with one and disagree with the other because you need the skill to use the gear and you need the gear to perfect your skill.
You need the skill to use the gear – in everything you do or want to do, you have to learn the skill to be good at it. You can’t just wake up one morning and go “oh I want to be a photographer” then you buy the most expensive gear without even knowing how to use it.
Which also brings another saying – Start small so that as you grow, your gear grows with you.
This is the case with some individuals in the photography industry who have the most expensive gear worth over $10,000 or more but they don’t know a thing about ISO, Appeture and Shutter Speed. They take a picture and it ends up being overexposed.
They have the high end gear but can’t produce high end images. But when you learn/know the skill, you can own a low quality gear and still produce high quality images.
I know a photographer Ebuka Mordi (@ebuka_mordi) who started with a Nikon D60 if I’m not mistaken but when he takes a picture of you, you’d think it was taken with a high end camera. That’s skill right there.
There are a lot of top world photographers in the street and documentary photography space who still use “low quality” cameras to shoot and their work is still top notch.
The gear is just a tool but what really matters is the person who uses it and the person who has the eye to create visual appealing images.
You need the gear to perfect the skill – like I said earlier you can’t agree with one and disagree with the other because the answers are like Yin and Yang – they go together.
You need the gear to perfect your skill and improve your skill, in everything you do you have to scale up but as you scale up in terms of gear you need to improve your skill by learning new things.
In photography, videography we can’t dispute the fact that you need gear, in fact gear is important just as your skill that’s why as you grow as a photographer you get the urge to buy new gear and upgrade your equipments because it’ll help you and your craft.
As you grow you’d realize the images you create with your Nikon D60 won’t give you the quality you are looking for when you want to DO MORE.
Better tools makes your work more refined.
It is at that moment you go “Omo I gats change this camera o” because you’ve mastered the skill over the years and you have a quality or taste that you are looking.
So now, Does gear really matter or is your skill more important?.
The 54th 