Taking great photos

The secret to taking great photos isn't about what cameras you have or what lenses you use. In fact, it's barely about cameras at all.

As I scrolled through some of my 45k+ photos the other day, I realized that I had a bunch of photos that I thought were good. As good as those from some of the people who I look up to today.

As I scrolled all the way back to 2012, looking through photos taken with a $199 Canon SD1000 point and shoot, I was struck over and over again by how much I liked these photos. The warm colours, beautiful grain, soft contrast, are all the exact qualities that I'm trying to capture now with my multi-thousand dollar Fuji setup.

The more I thought about these photos, the more I realized that the camera doesn't matter at all. I was bringing this camera along on trips, on long weekends, on holidays. This camera only ever came out when there was guaranteed fun to be captured. That's why its signal to noise ratio is so strong.

Turns out cameras and lenses aren't the secret to taking great photos. The real secret is just living.