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”.
So true, nothing has been so important to develop myself than setting limitations and finding those walk arounds. Great video! 6 mins that packed a punch!
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.
First, I just ordered “Gypsies,” so thanks for that. Second, I sold all of my professional (film) camera gear a year back because it’s been sitting unused since 2013. My work mostly was 35mm with an 85mm or 120 with normal or ultrawide. Soon after selling the stuff I realized that despite the long hiatus, I couldn’t live without photography and decided to begin again, imposing the limits you talk about - one film stock and format, one developer, one body, one lens, one subject. Being human, that expanded to a couple of additional lenses, but the remaining constraints have made me see my subject in a fresh way. I’m not there yet…but am getting there.
Follow up and let me know what you think of the book. I think it is great. It has some serious/dark themes in it, a fact I made light of in my video. Nice that you've landed on a simple approach now, and that you're back making photos!
I agree with you up to a point ... I have quite an extensive collection of cameras and lenses, and for the last few years I go out with one camera and one lens and concentrate on what I can see within the limitations I have for myself. It could be any one of a dozen cameras and maybe fifty lenses - I have lost count. My outlook is to use what I have got at any one time as an optical paintbrush - very simple - and it works for me. The reason for this is that I get bored and restless without the potential for choice. I admire Koudelka, but I aint him.
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.
Hi Jeremy. You said many good things in this video that I almost never hear. I have a friend I went to art school with many years ago and he came up with a word, “Expressure”, which I think is a portmanteau of “expression” and “pressure”. Many of us do our best work when limited by time or tools, etc. If you’re building a cabin, you buy an ax and hammer you like and go with them. Hopefully we all find a camera that speaks to us and makes us want to shoot. It doesn’t need to be the best camera ever. This is way more important than endless options.
I like that. Expressure. Thanks for sharing. Sergio Larrain talks about getting a camera that you like to use, that feels good in the hand, as being very important.
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.
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...
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.
This was a very good analysis that applies to almost any kind of productive effort. In a nutshell, too many choices produces time wasted contemplating the abundance of options. This obvious phenomena of human behavior should be applied to the study of economics as well (given that economic behavior is largely driven by incentive, and an abundance of choices certainly creates an incentive to consider all the available options in order to find the one that best fulfill one’s needs or desires).
I traveled Eastern Europe with an M4/3 and a 17mm and 25mm lens (35mm and 50mm) and over years I took thousands of photos. Still some my best photos. These days I have Nikon FX and a 35mm film camera - but new and bigger tools did not make my photos better.
I mean, it get where you're coming from. But most professionals working today in photojournalism aren't falling into the very online gear black hole. They just use whatever, and Koudelka largely seems to have done the same. I think you might be ascribing a bit more intentionality to his gear choices than he really ever gave it. Plus, this is a man who should NOT be emulated, he was absolutely obsessive to the point of self harm frankly. It's far more likely that singular, self immolating drive is what made his work so high quality, because he just was out there doing the work every day. Not because he used fewer lenses. JMO and overall still liked the video because it highlighted such an important figure.
Fair points. Yes, he was out there doing the work. But from what I understand, he used the same camera body and lens for nearly a decade. One could say he obsessed over the work and not the gear. In any case, my video is an interpretation. Thanks for watching!
Photojournalists are, in my experience, the least affected by GAS among photographers. Trying out new stuff is something you can hardly afford when you only have one shot. I worked with regional newspapers and most photographers use DSLRs from 10 -15 years ago, the only exception being sports assignments where progress in camera tech has been way more meaningful.
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
thank you for this. i find limitations really help me enjoy practising any art form. whether it's limiting myself by paint medium, or canvas size.. or with photography the limitation of the fixed lens camera. i think i have had my most enjoyable photographic years with the fuji x100 series and the leica q series. i know where to position myself before i raise the camera to my eye. the fixed lens camera also takes away so much of the gear planning: what lenses to carry today , what bag to carry for said lenses...
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.
Great video. We need videos like this that bring us back to our center. Like Thoreau said, Simplify, simplify.” I have plenty of gear but prefer just shooting with my X100v.
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.
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.
Oh man… i have one year in photographfy, with a Sony a 6400 basic kit… thinking about buy some “better”gear and lenses… but your analisis and study of JK is a shocking light for me… i know now what i need to do… thank you so much!
The term coined by Dr Barry Schwartz for this is the paradox of choice. he wrote a book and did a TED talk based on that research and his book. The idea is that most people think that the more choices we have the more freedom we have. he has found that in general this is not the case. this applies to camera gear, TH-cam videos, toothpaste, anything where there are a lot of choices to be made. thanks for the video
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!😁
Thanks for watching. Stop consuming 99.9% of social media photography. Start digging through photobooks. Check out Tod Papageorge's "Core Curriculum." Read into the lives of older photographers you admire.
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...
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”.
So true, nothing has been so important to develop myself than setting limitations and finding those walk arounds.
Great video!
6 mins that packed a punch!
Thanks! I find it amazing how people still think having an arsenal of the latest and greatest tools makes them a better photographer.
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.
First, I just ordered “Gypsies,” so thanks for that. Second, I sold all of my professional (film) camera gear a year back because it’s been sitting unused since 2013. My work mostly was 35mm with an 85mm or 120 with normal or ultrawide. Soon after selling the stuff I realized that despite the long hiatus, I couldn’t live without photography and decided to begin again, imposing the limits you talk about - one film stock and format, one developer, one body, one lens, one subject. Being human, that expanded to a couple of additional lenses, but the remaining constraints have made me see my subject in a fresh way. I’m not there yet…but am getting there.
Follow up and let me know what you think of the book. I think it is great. It has some serious/dark themes in it, a fact I made light of in my video. Nice that you've landed on a simple approach now, and that you're back making photos!
Just get an Olympus OM-1n and a 50mm f/1.8
I really liked the material. Job well done!
Thank you!
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!
Josef is one of my favs...loved this study ...limits set us to create work under pressure...
Absolutely!
I agree with you up to a point ... I have quite an extensive collection of cameras and lenses, and for the last few years I go out with one camera and one lens and concentrate on what I can see within the limitations I have for myself. It could be any one of a dozen cameras and maybe fifty lenses - I have lost count. My outlook is to use what I have got at any one time as an optical paintbrush - very simple - and it works for me. The reason for this is that I get bored and restless without the potential for choice. I admire Koudelka, but I aint him.
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.
Hi Jeremy. You said many good things in this video that I almost never hear. I have a friend I went to art school with many years ago and he came up with a word, “Expressure”, which I think is a portmanteau of “expression” and “pressure”. Many of us do our best work when limited by time or tools, etc. If you’re building a cabin, you buy an ax and hammer you like and go with them. Hopefully we all find a camera that speaks to us and makes us want to shoot. It doesn’t need to be the best camera ever. This is way more important than endless options.
I like that. Expressure. Thanks for sharing. Sergio Larrain talks about getting a camera that you like to use, that feels good in the hand, as being very important.
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.
Thanks for the case study. Glad you found a bit more freedom in less.
I'm also sticking with 40mm for a while (27 on aps-c). An f2.8 pancake on a small body, and a big f1.2 on a bigger body. Let's see how it goes.
So spot on! Some of the greatest images over the years have been taken by plain gear.
Agreed.
Excellent!
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.
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...
Exactly.
Just stumbled upon this video. You have a new sub :) Loved the topic, the tone and the storytelling.
Thank you. :)
Thank you for this thoughts. Very interesting.
Glad you enjoyed it!
Subscribed. Thank you for sharing interesting topic discussion
Thank you!
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.
Good words !
Thanks!
This was a very good analysis that applies to almost any kind of productive effort. In a nutshell, too many choices produces time wasted contemplating the abundance of options. This obvious phenomena of human behavior should be applied to the study of economics as well (given that economic behavior is largely driven by incentive, and an abundance of choices certainly creates an incentive to consider all the available options in order to find the one that best fulfill one’s needs or desires).
As I was making this video I was reminded of that American fast food chain (Wendy's) commercial from the 1980s, the Soviet fashion show.
I traveled Eastern Europe with an M4/3 and a 17mm and 25mm lens (35mm and 50mm) and over years I took thousands of photos. Still some my best photos. These days I have Nikon FX and a 35mm film camera - but new and bigger tools did not make my photos better.
Agree that new and bigger tools don't do much to improve images. Whereas a bad idea can't be saved by a new camera, a good one shines with any.
Every time i shoot my Praktica or Contax with the Flektogon 25mm f4 i think about Josef Koudelka and his Prague pictures.
Yes, I like this video.👍
I mean, it get where you're coming from. But most professionals working today in photojournalism aren't falling into the very online gear black hole. They just use whatever, and Koudelka largely seems to have done the same. I think you might be ascribing a bit more intentionality to his gear choices than he really ever gave it. Plus, this is a man who should NOT be emulated, he was absolutely obsessive to the point of self harm frankly. It's far more likely that singular, self immolating drive is what made his work so high quality, because he just was out there doing the work every day. Not because he used fewer lenses. JMO and overall still liked the video because it highlighted such an important figure.
Fair points. Yes, he was out there doing the work. But from what I understand, he used the same camera body and lens for nearly a decade. One could say he obsessed over the work and not the gear. In any case, my video is an interpretation. Thanks for watching!
Photojournalists are, in my experience, the least affected by GAS among photographers. Trying out new stuff is something you can hardly afford when you only have one shot. I worked with regional newspapers and most photographers use DSLRs from 10 -15 years ago, the only exception being sports assignments where progress in camera tech has been way more meaningful.
TBF I don't think this video is primarily aimed at professional photojournalists.
Great video and message. Though shooting with Leica and then talking about limited gear is an interesting thought!! Thanks
Nailed it ❤ subscribed
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
thank you for this. i find limitations really help me enjoy practising any art form. whether it's limiting myself by paint medium, or canvas size.. or with photography the limitation of the fixed lens camera. i think i have had my most enjoyable photographic years with the fuji x100 series and the leica q series. i know where to position myself before i raise the camera to my eye. the fixed lens camera also takes away so much of the gear planning: what lenses to carry today , what bag to carry for said lenses...
That muscle memory is important, and comes fast when you really know your tools. I'd love a fixed lens 28mm camera, but the Leica Q is $$$$.
@@jeremybassetti what about the ricoh gr iii?
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.
Great video. We need videos like this that bring us back to our center. Like Thoreau said, Simplify, simplify.” I have plenty of gear but prefer just shooting with my X100v.
Thanks! Yes! Simplify, simplify, simplify!
Right on the money. Less is more :-).
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.
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.
Interesting... thanks for sharing. I didn't know that.
Oh man… i have one year in photographfy, with a Sony a 6400 basic kit… thinking about buy some “better”gear and lenses… but your analisis and study of JK is a shocking light for me… i know now what i need to do… thank you so much!
Glad it helped you! Nice cameras are nice, but they can't save bad ideas/photos.
You're speaking my language with this fantastic video! Suuuubed!
Thank you for watching!
Limitation is the fabric photography is made of. The shutter limits time while making a composition is the art of leaving out....
The term coined by Dr Barry Schwartz for this is the paradox of choice. he wrote a book and did a TED talk based on that research and his book. The idea is that most people think that the more choices we have the more freedom we have. he has found that in general this is not the case. this applies to camera gear, TH-cam videos, toothpaste, anything where there are a lot of choices to be made. thanks for the video
Yes, that's right! Thanks for noting that here.
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.
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!😁
Thanks for watching. Stop consuming 99.9% of social media photography. Start digging through photobooks. Check out Tod Papageorge's "Core Curriculum." Read into the lives of older photographers you admire.
IMO a Fuji X100 or a Ricoh GR can be examples of tools that simplify the vision and the workflow.
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.
İ like koudelka because of 25mm works
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...
You have some good points - I went so deep into the rabbit hole of lenses that i completely lost interest in taking pictures!
Oh no! I hope you can recover the interest.
Good video, would be much better if you’d stick to one lens length instead of punching in and out so often😂
Gear rules = BS! Everyone has his own approach, similar, equal or not or the opposite, all fine. Rules are BS in arts.
Besr rule is, no rules.
You say we need to eliminate noise?
Perhaps I need a better camera 🎉
😂 but maybe that means one with a lower megapixel count. 😉
The panning in and out is really annoying.
Koudelka living now would have binned his rule and suffered from GAS just like all of us.
he is still alive and an active member of magnum agency
Must be mates with Sean Tucker