Ok, so we have discussed GAS. GAS occurs when you feel that you need to keep on buying things, or buy things for the wrong reason(s). This isn’t a discussion about GAS … rather it is about the woes of indecision and stress from having too many choices to make. The dreaded results of having too much stuff include missing a picture due to unfamiliarity with an underused camera, being waded down and made overly conspicuous by carrying much more gear than necessary for the task at hand, or having outright paralysis because you have too many choices to make. In the end you become frustrated and unhappy.

This is not to be confused with having the right tool for the job. Or as some people on the forums are fond of saying, “horses for courses”. For example, there are times for you when a rangefinder might be the right solution, and other times when a single lens reflex might be best. Depending on subject matter or circumstances it may come down to a decision to use 35mm, medium or large format size. Or to use a camera with movements verses one without.

What I am talking about is my belief that it is best to keep things simple concerning whatever outfit you have or are using. That means generally one camera for the task at hand (it does not mean you shouldn’t own a back up in case your main camera breaks or falls into the lake), and only the lenses you need, verses all those you think would be great to have, or all the focal lengths the manufacturer makes! Ok, for certain applications I can see the value of having more than one camera, each with a different lens … or I know … one for color and one for black and white … but I hope you get the point.

I really believe that those who are less caught up with the need to carry an over abundance of gear – particularly lenses, have more time to concentrate on capturing the best picture instead of trying to figure out what is the best lens to use at any given time. Truth be told, probably more than 90% of my pictures have been made with a 50mm lens or near 50mm lens equivalent in different formats. But even so, I have owned more than one focal length for my outfits, because the other lenses do get used when necessary, albeit not as nearly as often the “normal” lens.

Think about this — using the 50mm, it only takes a few steps forward or backwards to get the equivalent of a mild wide angle or mild telephoto lens. In your case with the way you see the world, it might be a 35mm lens moving forward a few steps to give the view of a 50mm when needed. Entire careers of great photographers have been built around these two focal lengths or their equivalents. In any case, the point is to know your equipment, be familiar with what it can do so you can be free to concentrate on what counts – capturing the vision you have when you decide you want to make the picture!

Let’s get together! Yes, how about getting together to chat about our photographs and the stories behind them. What was your intent in making the photograph, what were you trying to say, was it a success? If you made your print, were there any particular challenges involved?

This is not a discussion focused on gear — the idea is to share insights, get constructive feedback, learn a few things, relax and make new friends!

Well, if this sounds interesting and fun, how about joining me in beautiful downtown Doylestown, PA, in the heart of scenic Bucks County, and we will get together over a cup of coffee.

Photographers of all levels are welcome.

I think a total of 3-4 people is the right size. Bring only a couple of prints to discuss. Obviously the prints should be Black and White and should be film based!

The first get together will be on Sunday, February 21^st, 3:00-4:30 at the Zen Den coffee shop, located on ‪20 Donaldson Street, Doylestown, PA 18901.

Email or call me at 215-348-9171 if you are interested. First come first serve!

I look forward to meeting you!

You know him/her. You may even have been him/her.

I will be the first to admit I like film cameras irrespective of what their purpose is. They are neat, precision mechanical devices. One of my happiest moments was when I finally got my brand spanking new Honeywell Pentax Spotmatic F after all the research and agonizing over the various alternatives. That and the nifty 55mm f1.8 screw mount lens that came with it. Half the fun was going to the camera store, looking at all the cool cameras, then pouring over all the glossy company literature day after day that was stuffed under my night stand on the floor. I especially was captivated by the discussion of Honeywell’s multilayered coatings used on its Super-Takumar lenses.

You can imagine how sad I was after the camera’s pentaprism got dented as a result of traveling with me when I happened to get into a little car accident. But I was happy again when I was able to save up and get its replacement, a brand new Nikkormat FTn with a 50mm f2 lens – the gateway into Nikon land! I couldn’t afford the Nikkormat the first time around, but I had it now!

The Spotmatic and Nikkormat were fine pieces of equipment and their lenses served me well. No doubt they still would!

Guess what … I have gone through a lot of gear. One of my friends has kindly called it equipment churn. But I don’t have a problem with trying new brands or different formats to see I how like them.

While it is true that you can make a great picture with any camera/lens, anyone that says there isn’t something special about the intimate relationship you have with a particular mechanical device and how it works is simply not telling the truth.

So there, I’ll say it; you should be one with your equipment and enjoy what you are using! I am, and I do!

But the demise of many dedicated brick and mortar camera stores has made it near impossible for many to touch and feel film cameras and their lenses. If you live in or near a large city maybe you still have a place to go with a decent used film camera case, but if not, you’re stuck purchasing online or over the phone, sight unseen.

Look, I have kissed a lot of frogs along the way, only to end up selling them because I felt they were too complicated to use, or they didn’t intuitively enable me to produce what I wanted to produce, etc. And I can honestly admit I don’t have a problem with that.

So what about GAS? I think GAS occurs when you have too many cameras and lenses that you don’t need, and acquiring them becomes the journey instead of actually getting out in the world and making pictures.

Let’s face it, it’s fun to buy things and certainly it’s not as scary as having to put yourself out there and possibly fail at what you set out to do, or not enjoy yourself because of unreasonable expectations you or others have created or instilled within you.

This is not to say that it’s wrong to own and use more than one format for different applications, or even two types of cameras of the same format, such as a rangefinder and a single lens reflex (I do). I think where things go haywire is when you start buying much more than you can ever reasonably use because you feel a need to have things that go beyond your true need to use them. That does not mean it’s a bad idea to own a lens that you may only use ten percent of the time.

There is nothing worse than being in a position where you need that lens to make the picture and you don’t have it. In fact, while it is well known that Henri Cartier-Bresson used the 50mm lens to make the vast majority of his wonderful pictures, he also used other lenses on occasion when the need called for them. On the other hand, the great photojournalist Alfred Eisenstaedt favored the 35mm lens, but also used others when necessary such as the 90mm for his iconic portrait of Marilyn Monroe.

The bottom line is that unless you require specialty focal length lenses for things like wildlife, you can pretty much conquer the world with just three lenses – the normal, the mild wide and the mild telephoto.

OK, so have I succumbed to the dreaded GAS? Of course I have and I can stand before you and admit it!

Its happened once or twice, but in the end I was able to fight off the demons lurking inside … like the time when I walked into the camera store and saw all those used but mint Leica R ROM lenses for my Leica R9 camera. I knew what they were, what they were worth and they were sitting there all in one location in front of me! Carrying a credit card can be a curse and before I knew it they were mine … mine! I honestly couldn’t help myself. Fabled fixed focal lengths and zooms I had never dreamed of using before — I was now fantasizing how I would employ them to enable me the flexibility to make pictures I had never made before or ever had an interest in making!

While I used a 50mm lens or its equivalent to make the vast majority of all my photographs, I made all the necessary justifications and the deed was done. Yes I made a Faustian bargain with the devil; the deal was too good to pass up and having them would make me a better photographer. Wrong! Once I had these Teutonic gems in my possession you can’t imagine what a distraction they became, not to mention how much space they took up in my camera bag and extra weight they added!

To make a long story short, after much self-inflicted angst, most were sold (although a few replaced my basic older and slower versions … I am only human you know!) and all was well again, financially and photographically.

Fred Picker was right.

Most will never see many of their photographs hung on a wall. There are a number of reasons for this. In fact most digital photographs remain on the computer and are only displayed on the Internet. And many who print their analog photographs often consign their work to the boxes that contained the printing paper used to make them. Sad but true!

But let’s say you are printing and mounting your photographs; have you taken the necessary amount of time to really examine them in a contemplative fashion over a period of time to determine if they are good and say what you wanted said? For many the answer is no.

Fred Picker had a great idea. He said it was important to mount a strip of wood on the wall in a place where you could view your mounted prints, lit in a manner they might normally appear in, and at a height they would be normally viewed. He was right; I have one in my workroom, lit by focused eyeballs. This simple setup enables you sit back over a period of time and really decide if your prints are keepers or material for the circular file. This can be painful, but valuable for several reasons: (1) you can actually see your prints on a wall, which is most gratifying if you have never experienced this before; and (2) you can determine if more work needs to be done in the darkroom to make the final print better, or whether it just makes sense to cut your losses and toss it because it really isn’t that good after all.

Think about it, how many hopelessly boring, even if technically sound photographs have you seen on the Internet?

So please consider this deceptively simple device: go to Home Deport or Lowes, get a strip of molding and attach it to the wall. That’s right! Print your photographs, mount them or have them mounted, then stand them up on the strip of molding and study them for a while.

One of two things will happen. Either you will come to the decision that the print you are studying is a statement of what you saw in your minds eye and is deserving, or you will decide that it needs more work or isn’t very good after all. In any case you will have learned a lot and taken a major step to create what speaks to you and is only your best work!