Nobody Cares About Your Gear

You know what? Nobody Cares About Your Gear.

That’s was harsh. But it’s the truth and you should know it. Here’s why.

Let’s start with a simple and clear statement: Gear doesn’t matter.

Why do I say this? Well, if you’re like me you probably are a part of a photography community, whether online or in person and, in many of these communities there are so many people constantly talking about gear. It seems that you can only shoot portraits if you use a US$5,000 lens, otherwise your images will be trash. Or, you need the latest full frame camera or you’ll never be a “real” photographer. Or, how Nikon is better than Canon, or Sony is the new king or whatever.

That’s why I thought of writing this post and making the video, so you understand why we shouldn’t care or worry so much about gear.

So, let me try and explain my point of the gear not being important, with a question: Does your customer care about your gear? Can your customer look at one of your images and tell if you use Canon or Nikon? Can they tell if you used a Full frame or APS-C camera? Or a medium format camera? Better yet, can you tell?

What Matters, Then?

The most important thing is that your images serve a purpose to your customer, specially as a business. Even if photography is your hobby, the main point of creating images is to express your creativity and move your audience.

Then, if the end user of your image (customer, audience) is pleased or moved with the results, the only person who should care about your gear is you. Not your friends, not other photographers. The one person using the gear as a tool, is you. That’s why you should use the camera system that works for you.

I have worked in photography for more than 10 years and there was only one case where the “customer” set gear requirements (full frame camera, ultra-wide angle lens). I’m using quotes because it was not an actual customer, but a company looking to hire a photographer who would bring his/her own gear… We could talk about that case some other day.

Gear Doesn’t Matter

As I explained, the only person who should care about your gear is you. I’m trying to illustrate my point with the images in this article and the video. You probably can’t tell which images were shot with a compact camera, an APS-C mirrorless or a full frame DSLR. If you cannot tell the difference nor your customer, gear does not matter.

The only thing that matters is for you to create interesting images for your customer or audience.

What do you think? Does your gear matter to other people? Leave a comment below.