Photography Culture

Opinion: The Best Camera Is Your Eyes and Brain; Not the Device in Your Hands

Chris Gampat
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08/13/2019
2 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Rokinon 14mm f2.8 AF EF review photos 49

Last Updated on 10/01/2020 by Chris Gampat

This is a reminder to photographers to actually experience things, not just capture or create.

There is a great exercise for photographers that actually involves not having your camera with you (and also not using the camera on your phone either). Instead, you just immerse yourself in an experience and forego getting a photo that may otherwise be subpar and end up buried somewhere in a social media feed only to be forgotten for a few double taps. No camera can capture a personal experience. Cameras know nothing about love, about creativity, about anger; they know nothing of emotions. Humans do, and sometimes we try to hide behind cameras to shield ourselves from tough moments, or spend all of an experience staring at the back of a screen/through a viewfinder rather than actually paying attention to what’s happening in front of us.

The idea that we need to document everything is an awful one. There are tons of personal happenings that we should just pay attention to and take in. Here’s a list of what we commonly see on social media:

  • Food: you don’t need a million images of your lunch. One will suffice. Get that one image perfect. Or better yet, don’t document it at all if you’re not going to do justice to how much joy it will bring you.
  • Your pet: Sharing your pet brings others a whole lot of joy. But why not also just be 100% in the moment? Instead, perhaps passively set up the recording somewhere else by putting your camera on a tripod or something.
  • Your vacation: These are cool moments. And sharing your visit to the beautiful churches in Europe is bound to make folks not there look with awe. But don’t shoot an image unless you really know that it will encapsulate the experience.
  • What you did last night: Honestly, people know you’re cool. That’s why they hang with you. Take one photo and call it a night with your camera.

If you’re using a camera, try to challenge yourself to take only a single image, and not a ton. You’ll see just how this exercise makes you exist much more in the moment.

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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.