Warning: This post may ruffle some feathers among photography lovers.
Ancient History
For a long time, I held a camera. As I youth, I loved to sketch, but it wasn’t enough. The camera would tell a better story than my hand and eye could do justice. Later, I worked in the small newspaper business, but it just didn’t pay. Newspapers were already beginning their economic spiral hastened by the internet.
View from Mount Eisenhower, New Hampshire, USA ©lifeasjack.com. All rights reserved.
Switching gears, I freelanced and finally went all in for myself. I carried a camera bag for more than 30 years. There’s art in the photography business, but it’s not always the art I was seeking to create. Taking jobs required the consideration of feeding the kids and paying the bills. Rather than be a starving artist to use bold strokes to yield works that might not sell, I became a “house painter”, sometimes holding my nose and shooting for money. There were days that I wished to go back to carrying a single 35mm body and 24mm lens instead of tripods lights, and a bag full of lenses.
Change and Evolution
The world of photography was evolving as well. The age of paper prints and albums began to lose it’s grip on how images are viewed and shared. In my mind, devices are now the primary way images are consumed, be it good or bad.
Photographing street images: Daily life in Hoi An Vietnam ©lifeasjack.com. All rights reserved.
After shedding my photography life, I kept a camera for recreation and travel, but over time, lugging a three pound DSLR up the side of a mountain, while counting ounces on backpack items didn’t seem to make much sense. At the summit, I realized I was not here to create art, but to record the moment for myself. A good phone could do that.
Along the Wapack Trail, New Hampshire USA ©lifeasjack.com. All rights reserved.
I sold every last piece of gear to aspiring kids that needed cameras, and never shed a tear. For years I had been a gear head, spending thousands on equipment. My minimalist self rejoiced as I sold all the stuff that had become an obstacle to making images. I wanted to live in the moment, hiking at dawn deep in the woods or on the top of a fantastic peak. I began to prefer simply sitting and enjoying it, rather than working to record it.
Hiking trail leading to Wildcat summits, New Hampshire, USA ©lifeasjack.com. All rights reserved.
Nostalgia and Compromise
There are days that I miss the heft of an actual camera in my hand, and raising a viewfinder to my eye to focus my attentions through a small rectangle that frames the world. I miss the click of my 1970’s Canon F1, the crank of the advancing film lever. The deliberate process cannot be entirely replicated by my phone. I don’t have the “reach” of those long lenses, the luxury of lens selection that equates to a painter choosing the right brush. I do, however, have the internet and scores of amazing wildlife images by gifted pros to view when I need a dose of the images that I’ve chosen not to pursue.
Chase Jarvis’ book titled: “The Best Camera Is The One That’s With You” comes to mind more often these days when, on a windswept trail I reach down and pat my pocket to confirm my phone is there, not just as my backup map and verbal communicator, but a visual one as well.
An Unmapped Route: A Hiker's Blog 