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Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Bridging Tech and Creative Photography
Features

Why Professional Photographers Need More Than One Camera

Chris Gampat
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02/07/2015
2 Mins read

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Sony A7 Mk II first impressions (25 of 29)ISO 4001-50 sec at f - 2.2

Imagine for a second that you’re shooting a photo gig that will help further your career and is paying quite handsomely. Things are going well and there is so much hope. But then out of the blue, the camera malfunctions or breaks, or something else really terrible happens to it. You fall to your knees–broken and dumbfounded as to what to do.

It happens: trust us, it happens. And any photographer that wants to be a professional needs to have at least two bodies to ensure that this doesn’t happen.

Years ago when I was first starting out, I didn’t have two bodies either–but I was a working photojournalist and paparazzi who needed to switch lenses while on the move.

The things that happened that could have easily been prevented if I had just picked up a second body make me still kick myself.

Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Product photos Canon 5D Mk III (2 of 10)ISO 200

So what happened?

– While switching lenses, dust and debris sometimes got onto the sensor and therefore ruined my images. It would require me to go to a local place to get the sensor cleaned. While this happened, I couldn’t shoot and pretty much sat around twiddling my thumbs instead of making money.

– The camera would get soaked sometimes during rain showers. As much as I tried to protect it, I couldn’t prevent autofocus issues arising and other problems arising due to needing to shoot in inclement weather.

– I’d need to switch lenses and miss a moment when I could have instead just pulled the other camera up to me to capture a scene.

– I could have switched to the other body immediately instead of having to change the battery, and therefore missing moments.

– When one camera was at its buffer on the CF writing process, the other camera could have been capturing images.

– When shooting in a pit, it would have been much easier to get the shot if I didn’t need to switch lenses without moving and hitting someone.

Sure, you may be careful and the chances of it happening to you are very slim. But it happens to the best of us, and we all need a second camera body for various reasons.

Notice where we’re going with this?

Having a second body is all about ensuring that you not only capture the moment, but make sure that you can capture it to the way that your creative mind sees it. Before you think of becoming even a semi-professional shooter, we really recommend that you pick up a second camera body even if it’s a cheap one.

To start, work on getting the good lenses first and use cheaper camera bodies. Later on, work towards getting the more expensive camera bodies.

camera lenses moment professional photographer second body
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Chris Gampat

Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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