I moved house recently, and apparently that messed me up more than I thought. My camera's weighed a ton. BUT I did get something going last week. My new 'studio' is about 25% larger than my old 'studio' (each of these being a room in my apartment), which is great. There's less of the playing-Twister-on-the-monkey-bars feeling in the new space. It makes things easier.
My new setup also features a new camera/computer combination, which let's me shoot tethered, AND sometimes results, when I'm looking at the captures, in a sharp intake in breath. The new camera and lens are so much sharper, more detailed, and richer in colors than that old outmoded lame excuse for a camera I was using.
That reminds me. I was talking with Hunter Freeman, one of the photographers I work for, about ten months ago. I mentioned that I was unhappy with my camera but that I couldn't afford the new one. He said that it usually wasn't about the equipment as about the operator. That let the air out of my acqusition baloon. I spent the next six months trying to extract every bit of performance out of that old machine, trying to work within its limitations, and trying to get it to do what I wanted it to do.
There's a strong current of gearweenieness in photography, and I'm not immune to it. I love me some new shiny. But Hunter was right, and I made some good photos with that old camera. People make compelling, interesting pictures with low-grade crappy equipment, and people make flat, sterile pictures with top-of-the-line equipment.
I would love to have a 10,000 square foot space with 50 foot ceilings, stocked with all the latest goodies, and I hope to someday. But struggling with a camera that's truly suboptimal has taught me to rely more on me and the creative process, and less on the gear I'm using. Plus I've banished, for now, the I-can't-shoot-because-my-equipment-sucks mentality.
With that in mind, and my new camera in hand, here's to less excuses and more photos.