I can’t decide. Sometimes I resign myself to lugging all sorts of camera gear around: umbrellas, reflectors, tripods, lenses, camera bodies…all sorts of goodies. Other times I think that life is just made so much more complicated by so many choices and “needs” and I just want to simple things down. At times like these I wish I owned a Leica M9 or, more realistically, a Nikon P7000, or Canon G11, or Fuji X100; simple, streamlined, but high quality cameras.
So I’ve taken to trying different approaches. Last fall I shot the Muertos y Marigolds Day of the Dead parade here with a bag full of gear and two cameras-one with a zoom to get in on all the action, one with a wide angle in order to capture some cool images of the low-rider cars rolling through. This weekend, while running around town with my wife and two young children, I grabbed my small Crumpler bag containing my Nikon D80 and a 50mm f1.8 lens. One simple(r) camera body and one simple, non-zoom, lens.
Boy, the feeling of freedom that came with the simple setup was grand. Did I wish for other lenses or my D300? Sure. A time or two. But without having them I was able to move through the “shucks” faze and work with what I had: some yummy light, 3 subjects I just adore, a nice backdrop. And, as a serious bonus, since I was less focused on my gear I actually got to connect more with my wife and kids. The camera didn’t stand between me and them, but rather sort of disappeared as it became part of what we were all doing. And so now the images I created are visual reminders of a day well spent, rather than the focus of the day.
I wonder, could we manage to connect better with our subjects and have a more rewarding experience with them if we just chose to travel light at times? What would it be like to travel with my D80-50mm lens setup, say to Paris? Or to Thailand? Perhaps I would be limited, but would that limitation actually force me to see differently, to look more for scenes, subjects, backgrounds, light–yummy gorgeous light?