What I Would do if I had to Restart
Recently a good friend and huge inspiration, Iwona Podlasińska, one of the worlds best children photographers had her Instagram account hacked and stolen losing almost 80k followers overnight!
This situation is beyond heartbreaking and one of those worst-case scenarios that got me to thinking about what I would do if I lost it all.
I thought up a scenario where someone stole all of my gear, everything! Including my editing set up.
Here’s what I would do.
The Camera
I’m going to assume that I have no insurance and not very much money to invest, so I will have to go the cheapest route.
When you don’t have much money, beggars can’t be choosers. But what I do have that can’t be taken away is knowledge.
The camera is not as big of a deal as most people would think. Yes, a good camera can make a huge difference but not if you don’t know how to use one very well. Whereas a cheap camera can be amazing in the hands of someone with the knowledge of how to use it.
So I would find a crop sensor or macro four thirds digital camera with an interchangeable lens. I don’t care about the brand or if it is a DSLR or mirrorless, it just needs to have an interchangeable lens. You could pick up a really nice cheap camera these days with these specifications.
Remember, we don’t have much money, so I need to keep this cheap. These specifications are what’s most important to me in this price range.
The Lens
This part is easy but probably the most impotent. I would search for some really nice cheap used vintage prime lenses that are in good condition.
They don’t even have to be the brand of the camera I get, just that I can get an adapter that will make it fit. You can do this for very cheap!
Again, this is where knowledge comes in handy. I used nothing but old vintage manual focus lenses up until just recently, so this is not a big deal to me at all. Only a mild inconvenience.
Editing Set Up
This would probably be the most irritating for me. There are many routes you could go here. I prefer Photoshop and Lightroom as my editing software, but there are free alternatives that you can easily find by doing a quick google search.
I’m not too concerned about this as I am subscribed to the Adobe CC which gives me full access to the full versions of Photoshop and Lightroom for $10 a month.
I would however have to find a cheap but powerful enough laptop to run it. This will be increasingly irritating as it would likely run super slow. But at least I would be up and running again! I would only have to deal with this until I did a few good sessions.
This would obviously be a temporary set up as I would be slowly and strategically upgrading my equipment as I work through the sessions.
Conclusion
I wanted to do this little exercise to show that you do not need the latest and greatest gear to get started. Just start now with what you have. Also to show that knowledge is SO much more important than gear! I’ve seen people’s phone pics that are better than a lot of so called professionals photos with the most expensive gear!
So don’t wait until you get your dream camera or dream lens, do what you love now. You will learn so much just by practicing practicing practicing. And that builds the knowledge that can never be taken away from you.
Happy shooting!