“The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don’t know what to do with it.”—Edward Weston
Photography, despite what’s said by the voices of the camera manufacturers, is not an easy craft to master. Like any path on the road to mastery, it takes time and practice, and a chorus of the right voices.
I’ve been on the journey for over five years now and still feel like a baby learning how to crawl. There is so much to learn, and so little time. I know that willpower and persistence will help me out in “walking the walk” instead of just “talking the talk.” I still have much to discover.
Reading about the craft, I found out that learning to see the light is of utmost importance. When it comes to photography, the topic of light cannot be ignored. It is easy to get wrapped in gear, genres, and the subject you want to photograph, but unless that image beautiful, interesting—or even just appropriate—light you are likely to dampen the effect of the overall photograph.
Photography opened my eyes. When I first saw light, it was as if I had been blind my whole life and then could finally see. “I’m talking about the subtle, soft, gentle light that caresses a person’s face as they sit by the window of a coffee shop, together with the overlapping shadows created by light coming from different directions.”
Somebody once said about photography, that there was poetry in the craft and that professionals of the trade were busy putting a frame around the world. I believe that is true. Yep, I wish I could be one of those gifted ones who enjoy the celebration of the human imagination with a camera in their hands and a zillion rays of light and shadows. Good Day.
Lingua Franca 
Everything that you (and others) have said here is true. Still, the best part for me this morning was that photo of the photographer. I just laughed and laughed. Some photogs do need that equipment – I understand that. Professional nature photographers, sports photographers, others – but the point is they know what to do with it. No sense weighting ourselves down with things we don’t know how to use.
I think that might apply to every endeavor, actually. Do you remember The Kingston Trio? They did a parody of the song, “The Streets of Laredo”. One of the great lines in the parody was, “If you get an outfit, you can be a cowboy, too.” Not necessarily. Down here. real cowboys have a saying about folks who like to pretend just a bit. They say, “He’s all hat, and no cattle.” 😉
Here’s the song. Now I’m laughing again.
Morning Linda:
Buying stuff just to boast that you have the latest gear with all the bells and whistles is just nonsense. Even though I own a DSLR Canon camera, I enjoy taking pictures with my old P&S compact camera. It just feels right in my hands.
I don’t want to be “all hat and no cattle” as a Texan would say.
Regards,
Omar.-