Monday, 5/31/10 - The Challenge

I am not a competitive person.

If you feel the need to win, we can both celebrate your victory.

There are some challenges that I take very seriously. So seriously that I become ruthless and obsessed.

Don't get me wrong, these challenges never involve other people, they are always personal.

Anything that involves learning a new skill I take as a personal challenge. I am not good at many things but I am not afraid to try. Trying gives me great pleasure.

I enjoy math and logic problems and can spend hours and hours noodling through word problems. While you were wondering why anyone would care about the exact time that trains leaving stations in NY and Chicago would cross paths, I was sketching and scribbling and scratching my head.

I tell you all of this because I am often asked about my camera equipment. People look at what I am using to take pictures and they comment about how nice it is (it isn't really that nice - it is actually quite old). They tell me about their equipment (which is often newer and better than what I am using) and comment that if they had equipment like mine they would be able to take better pictures.

Do you see where this is going?

Tonight I used two cameras to take the same pictures. One is my so-called "good" camera and the other is a very old 2MP Olympus.

I wanted to show that the camera made almost no difference.

Both cameras were set in full program mode and the images had no editing done after capture. There are slight differences in the exposure, white balance and saturation (all are to be expected) but the overall pictures are pretty much the same.

Here are the images. See if you can tell which is which:










I am convinced that any equipment in good working order can be used to capture stunning images if it is being operated by someone who understands photography.

If you have a piece of equipment that you feel cannot take decent pictures, please contact me and let me see what I can do with it. In the process of discovering how best to use your equipment, I will take the time to teach you how to use it to its fullest potential.

So, as is my style, the challenge is personal and in the end we will both win.