I was just reading that Henri-Cartier Bresson was having his Leica with him all the time. I wonder if that was actually bringing him more photos…
Without being aware of this habit of his, I have done pretty much the same for the last 2.4 years. It started with me getting my first DSLR ever, the Nikon D90, which date coincides with me starting to study photography. It continued with the heavier Nikon D7100 which soon will have a year in my possession.
The reasons for me were… a bit less romantic than his. Since it took me almost 2 years to cover for the debt for my first DSLR, which means that back then it was a considerable financial effort to get it, I swore that I will never leave the camera home since it is stupid to buy something like this and keep it at home. A camera needs to take photos, same as me. It has to go everywhere…
And so, I have carried more than 1.5 kilos everyday (camera and 1-2 lenses), back and forth from work and sometimes even if I only went to the supermarket. I must say it is not an easy job and it didn’t actually brought me so many photos as expected, since I am doing the same road everyday… But there are other things that this habit brought me, some positive, some negative.
The problem with having a DSLR is that a lot of people get scared of it. I don’t understand the reasons. One of them is probably the fear that their face will appear on a public wall and people will laugh at it. Or maybe someone will use that photo for dark sexual habits/rituals… Honestly, I don’t know and I am trying not to judge. Each with his own.
On the other hand, same people have nothing against being photographed with a small “point-and-shoot” camera. I mean, yeah, talking about consistency…
Anyway, this problem had a great influence on me making me really shy, almost scared to take the camera out. I ended up stopping from photographing in public which sucks. So, I need to get a smaller camera if I want to stop losing important personal moments, or any other cool things around me. I need and want to go unnoticed to avoid the mistrusting eyes and the weird scenes when parents are hurdling their kids away, quickly… And being mistaken with a “newspaper photog” doesn’t really help much with the “catching the moment” thing (see the photo above, taken in Romania, where it just happened that while waiting for someone, these fireman appeared marching). I need to exorcise my passion from whatever the people’s minds are cursing it with. I need to take photos in the way I like it, not in the way the society thinks it should be done. I do not mean that I want to share them with the world… Sharing is a different thing.
So, tomorrow I will receive a nice Fujifilm X20. It is a very good-looking camera, that not only will take awesome photos for me, but it will actually make me fashionable, able to “fit in”. Hopefully it will mean mission accomplished and not just some epic fail determined by gear fever. I’ll keep you posted.
