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This video is a gem I don't know why it got less likes,your way of speaking and English is good. Thanks for the recommendation

Cool, thanks!

This past year I dived back into photography after a few years hiatus. My wife bought me a 5d M4 a few years before that I hadn't really used as much as I wanted to because it just felt too precious and inconvenient. As I started to dive back in I went kind of nuts and somehow ended up with too many working cameras. Fixing up my old film ones, inheriting some, and all of a sudden I was burdened by options. And I was going out with extra lenses and multiple cameras. Taking the same picture on film and digital... And I was remembering that when I first started I had one camera and one lens. I didn't know what focal length it was it was just what came with the camera. I had more ambition than knowledge. I learned as I went and I figured it out. Eventually I got a dslr, a rebel xt, but like the other camera I never looked into more lenses. I just used the kit lens. But the film camera served a purpose and the digital served a purpose, they weren't better or worse. I was going to dump a bunch of stuff but then my wife said "Well, what if our daughters might want some of this in the future..." and i said fair. But I started setting limitations on myself. Owning those limitations. Using prime lenses. Going out with less stuff. And just letting the experience of the tool be that. The toughest one has been the Minolta Hi-matic E. It takes great pictures but I'm not sure if its the right amount of relinquishing control/having control.

There were allot of great western and eastern cameras available in soviet Tjeckoslovakia.. i was there as a photographer. It was even greater than back home in terms of what you could get that was german legendary cameras. I bought my M2 there, my pentacon six, my Robot, my Olympus Pen EE and Olympus sp35+ a rolleiflex.

Every time i shoot my Praktica or Contax with the Flektogon 25mm f4 i think about Josef Koudelka and his Prague pictures.

YES! That is how I've been shooting the last 2 years. “The only way you can write the truth is to assume that what you set down will never be read.” ― Margaret Atwood

Maybe limitations are a higher level. I'm not there for now. But what I know is that after 40 years of trying to fit what I see in a frame, exposure settings, aperture etc I gave up. And the images literally started to jump in the camera. I feel as if I'm just holding it. It may have been Kudelka that said something along the lines "I just point the camera at them". I heard that only after I experienced it for several months. For me the images actively jump into the camera. I barely have any concern for aperture or any other setting. Composition - I follow basics and do not overthink anything. This has become an experiment of liberation - I seek no appreciation or critique. No rules apply, no limitations. It is a liberating feeling. It is beyond easy (if you assume I am making it happen). if you care here they are but once again - this is not about the results but the experience of making images happen as if you are not driving the process: instagram.com/caminoreal1975

I really liked the material. Job well done!

Which black and white film did you use?

Excellent video full of valid points.

Josef is one of my favs...loved this study ...limits set us to create work under pressure...

I use and have used many different cameras. It’s not a big deal one way or another. Just do what feels comfortable and keep looking.

I studied painting. Setting limitations is an essential part of creating art.

Totally agree. Photography has to be on paper in a certain stage anyway

I learned that if you go out with the expectation to take good photos, you’ll be disappointed with what you captured. Versus if you go out to enjoy the process, then you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the good photos

Limitation is the fabric photography is made of. The shutter limits time while making a composition is the art of leaving out....

As a 20+ year editor, writer and a photo journalist, i can really say - gear doesent matter. Really. I had pictures in print and on web portals taken with D90... Also with 5DmkIII and MkIV... I still use D3s, D810 and even D90.. Its the story in the image that really matters...

Good video, would be much better if you’d stick to one lens length instead of punching in and out so often😂

This is so true ! With today digital cameras the temptation is to look at what you’ve shot on the screen . I think it inhibits that spontaneity!

Maybe the music would be blues… lovely pics…

Excellent!

Good words !

Thank you for this thoughts. Very interesting.

So spot on! Some of the greatest images over the years have been taken by plain gear.

Nice😊

Yes, I like this video.👍

Only just found your channel so no clue what lens system(s) you use, but 28mm is a beautiful perspective. I picked up a Pentax-M 28mm f2.8 lens for my k1000 and it's been awesome to have around; it brings the whole of a scene into play and lets me bring lots of what I can see in front of me into the lens. While 43-50mm mimics the visual perspective of the eye, I feel 28mm more accurately captures the whole of what you can see in front of you.

You say we need to eliminate noise? Perhaps I need a better camera 🎉

I’ve been a photographer since 1972. Over the years I have gone through countless bouts with GAS. I’ve had about every camera and system you can name. Nikon, Hasselblad, Canon, Leica, Minolta, Rollie, and the list goes on….. Since my retirement in 2013 my wife and I travel a lot, over 30 countries and counting. Until last trip I always tried to carry as much gear as possible, so as to be ready for any and all situation. It became a real pain. Last summer we went to Europe for 6 months. I made an almost impossible (for me) decision. I took only one full frame camera and one 40mm lens and a Leica D-Lux compact as a back up in case something happened to the full frame camera. It was the best decision I ever made. My images from this trip were the best I’ve taken in years. They were better composed, more thought out, and overall had more interest and visual meaning than ever. I ended up alternating using both cameras but only carried one at a time. So my creative options were concise and focused. So, I am in full compliance with your suggestion that less can be more. Maybe not more but better. It sure was for me.

I use m43 gear, which some would say is a limitation, being that the whole "full frame" thing has taken off so much in recent years. Koudelka used 35mm film though, which I would say is far more limiting as far as resolution goes, and yet his work looks so sharp. Though a very critical lens though, his images are probably not so sharp, but that just shows that it's as much how the medium is handled, with contrasts of tones and sharpness that really give the impression of sharpness, not so much the performance of the equipment. To my eyes, so many of the photographers who obsess about gear and the minutia of technique produce rather boring work. It's as if the more time they spend thinking about the technical stuff, the less time they spend thinking about the ideas that drive the work...

The way I see it... 2 cameras with 35mm + 50mm lens is basically what today a kit lens (zoom) means. And it's more about convenience than restraints.

Right on the money. Less is more :-).

this is why i just stick to one camera one lens. i don't want to keep switching lenses and at less this way i get to have a consistent body of work. leica m6 elmarit 28mm and usually portra 800, or ilford hp5. portra 400 for long exposure night photos

Hello from Viet Nam, This video popped up by chance, and after watching it, I found it really inspiring. By the way, could you recommend some books or keywords to help me start learning photography from the basics? I initially viewed photography as just a hobby, following instructions and trying to replicate "cool" pictures I saw online. But now, I want to take it more seriously and build a strong foundation from the ground up. Thank you!😁

Your photographs remind me of my own, and hearing that I suffer from the same self-punishment as you when taking photos makes me feel a little less unsatisfied with my work. I’m not cured, but I’m sure it will get better

You're so right. This is inspiring.

I am pretty sure that people will not only like your story but love it. It is a very good and honest video. Good luck with this and your future projects. You are on the right track.

In addition to his single Exakta lens, I read that Koudelka had to return to the university to reload his cassettes at the Soviet invasion of Prague. If I recall correctly there was no bulk loading machine, just a tin of 35mm film to which he had to attach his film cassette in the dark. Later he shared a printer with Cartier-Bresson, who produced brilliant luminous images from his negatives. The shot of the rocket being fired in his Gypsies book required numerous areas of masking, dodging and burning in, each carefully recorded on a master print.

Great video. It’s the paradox of choice. I had an abundance of cameras: from Leicas to minoltas, contax to Nikons-eventually I got absolutely sick of trying to master all of them. I sold everything, 30+ cameras and way more lenses, and, I’m not bragging at all, I made a fortune. I kept two Konica Hexar AFs because the autofocus is amazing, the lens is immaculate, and I have learned and love the limitations-and bought a pallet of hp5. Best decision of my creative life. “Don’t fear the photographer that has shot with a million cameras, fear the photographer that has shot one camera a million times.” -Bruce Lee, I think It also goes back to Daido Moriyama stating that “photographers need to make the camera their slaves, and not the other way around”.

I stumbled on this video and I’m a fan of Koudelka. To me he is the definition of what it takes to be in the top tier. His only motivation was to make the pictures. He did what was necessary to achieve that goal.

Depends on what you do. I think it's around 10 lenses I have. I only lug a few around with me, others I only bring if I know I need them.

Gear rules = BS! Everyone has his own approach, similar, equal or not or the opposite, all fine. Rules are BS in arts.

You have to find what works for you and your situation. It can be one camera, one lens forever, or changing it up once in a while or having loads of cameras to choose from. The important thing is to keep an open mind and going with what feels right for you. I find that changing the goal, the places i photograph at and shooting as much as possible are the most important things that are getting results and improvements for me.

I think that this is the video I needed today, thank you. I appreciate they aren't what you intended to shoot, but for what it's worth I like the photos you show at 2:45.

thank you for that video!

Must be mates with Sean Tucker

Great video and message. Though shooting with Leica and then talking about limited gear is an interesting thought!! Thanks

I totally agree. When I print and frame, I feel proud of them, and I begin to see them from an objective point of view.

Nailed it ❤ subscribed

The panning in and out is really annoying.