FIT THIRTY NINE
Good golly let's talk about gear.
I'm up and down about gear. Just over a week ago I got the new lens I've been waiting since last March (when I rented it as a trial run) and I'm pumped about it. For the nerds: Nikon 200-500 f/5.6 for the non-nerds: big long lens to look at birds and far away stuff with. I've already shot a few things with it, feeling it out even if the birds haven't fully arrived yet, or even if I don't really have the time when working full time on a show. Here's the thing with gear though. It's never ending.
I'm super excited that I'm going to settle into a routine this winter (film workers often have several weeks off around xmas time) of walking Becky with a big lens and monopod and hopefully finding some handsome birds to turn into prints. But the lens is like, part of a never ending infinite equation. When I took Becky for a walk on Sunday is a kinda perfect example.
We're so privileged in Squamish to live in the habitat of Eagles (among other wonderful, beautiful wildlife) and I count myself even more so that our home is minutes from a rock beach on the shores of the Squamish river. After getting into Paradise Valley the day before on a lens test run, I opted to leave the camera at home because of the heavy rain Sunday morning.
Clearly, this is the catch-22 of photography. Or Shrodingers Cat or something. But moments into our walk I can see down the banks towards the North, an adult Bald Eagle perched magnificently on a stumps protrusion from the river, flanked by the turning foliage even farther north as a blanket of fall colours, overlooking it's river kingdom. A flock of seagulls wading in the shallows below it. Why didn't I have my camera.
Rain cover. You have the wonderful lens now, but you also need to spend probably 100$ + on rain cover.
The eagle sat on their perch the 45 minutes that Becky and I walked the beach, so I took my chances on grabbing my bag, an umbrella and heading back out. Of course Handsome Eagle had some other business to attend to, their morning coffee was over.
Blaming gear is a classic. Obviously I'm doing it to an extent here, while trying to be grateful that I'm in a position finally where I am making investments again in photography. Gear blaming is also classic in bike racing, I don't want to be the person who would have won if not for my cleats being in the wrong position (that's a load of bullshit if the sarcasm isn't translating). But with photography, depending on the story you want to tell, sometimes gear really does matter. Especially if you can't afford to ruin your gear in the rain.
This is the cycle of photography. Heralded as the laypersons art, especially in a era where the majority of humans have a wireless device equipped with cameras that are really pretty decent. But if you're like me, I have specific things in mind, that requires some specific bits of kit that I just don't have yet. Again, if you're like me, it's also fun to dream about the cameras and bits you want, need or lust over.
And then there's times where the gear you've already invested in fails you. I bought strobes in early 2017 and I'm so glad I did. At the time Angela and I had our apartment in Chinatown that doubled as a studio. I had the opportunity to refresh and build on skills that were put aside while I focused on bike racing. With those strobes I made a big chunk of the portfolio I have now. Those strobes, let's say 'consumer grade’ strobes, have been through the ringer, one of them I know is no longer working reliably, but the other failed on me Sunday, and it's infuriating. Largely since I can't spend the cash until at least the spring, but also because I can't rely on that gear to make more (studio based) work right now.
I managed to make some interesting photos for Danielle on Sunday with just two working lights and a speedlight trigger, but still. The nice remote I own is currently completely useless with the surviving lights that aren't wireless enabled.
Sigh. It's okay. I will invest in a rain cover this winter, not only will it help me with birds, but in March I want to be at some bike races. I'm not mentally prepared quite yet for racing again I think, I'm definitely not physically prepared yet. But I want to be there to shoot photos and push my portfolio further. With any luck I'll have the new strobes by then and I can shoot some apres portraits of spent riders in the cold.