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A show about cameras, creativity, and the weird shit your brains do while you're trying to make something.
Together, we're exploring photography for all levels — asking the silly questions, sharing the expert knowledge, and digging into what it actually takes to grow as a human being and as an artist.
Ep 2 - The Trap of Gear
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Amy (she/her): [00:00:00] Photographers always have bad shots. We do. And if you don't know that yet, I'm telling you now even I have a shit ton of bad photos. And that's just how, how things work.
Casey (she/her): What happens when an expert photographer and a total beginner sit down to talk about cameras creativity and the weird shit their brain does while they're trying to make something?
Amy (she/her): You get the focus trap.
Casey (she/her): I'm Casey, a nervous system coach, beginner photographer, and someone who thinks way too hard about how the brain and the body works.
Amy (she/her): And I am Amy. I photograph dogs in action. I've been doing that for over 25 years, and I'm still obsessed with the split second decisions that make or break a shot.
Casey (she/her): Together. We're exploring photography for all levels. I'm asking the silly questions, Amy's sharing the expert knowledge and we're both digging into what it actually takes to grow as a human being and as an artist,
Amy (she/her): whether you're picking up a camera for the first time or you've been shooting for decades, this show is for you.
one of my favorite questions, ~and~ I, I really should use air quotes when I say that, is that is the question I get from people who wanna know what camera they should buy. ~Um. ~Gear is a big thing in photography, and I admit I am as much of a gear [00:01:00] nerd as anybody. I can talk about gear for hours and hours and I I love it.
~ ~Um, I love shiny new things. ~Um, ~but I think it's important to have to, to take a step back and, and have a reality check when we're, when it comes to talking about how you should upgrade, what you should buy, ~ ~um, because it's got, it's a question that I think these words are gonna become our. Part of our have to become part of our tagline or something, context and nuance,
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): are as important in the conversation about gear as they are in any conversation we have about photography.
Do you have any initial thoughts of, about gear and creativity, Casey, that you wanna kind of throw in here to get us started?
Casey (she/her): Yeah. I mean, the big thing as somebody who is newer to photography and did just upgrade my gear, like, I felt like there's this like pressure that that's the make or break in my creativity or like that will like. my ability to like be more creative is having the quote right gear. so this is something like, this is why this is such an early episode for us is it's [00:02:00] such a big question that is always coming up and is always being talked about. ~So ~I'm ~just ~looking forward to it because does it or does it not matter in terms of being a good photographer, in terms of having fun, in terms of being creative?
Like where does the gear fall in that? So
Amy (she/her): That the question gets asked, does gear matter or does it not matter? And, and I, I think. There's a middle ground there. Yes, it matters in some ways and no, it doesn't matter in others. And you know, I'm sure podcasts and YouTube videos and all that thrive on giving an absolute answer and saying, this is the way and here's the evidence and here's ~Why Why you, ~why gear doesn't matter.
anybody who's a good photographer should be able to pick up any camera and take a good photo, which there is an element of truth in that. So yeah, sure. I could hand me any camera and I can fumble my way through it and probably come out with something better than the average person. To dis use it as a way to dismiss. The idea that sometimes the gear does matter in what I [00:03:00] do. Photographing dog sports in really shitty light, it matters a lot and it matters so much that, that, that's the bar for me for, for picking my gear is that's the worst case scenario. So fast dogs doing agility in really bad light, like a convention center or, or a horse arena. ~ ~Um, think state fairground arena with, you know, the lights are 30 feet, 50 feet up and they're like this big.
Casey (she/her): right. Itty bitty.
Amy (she/her): Yeah, so I, my gear is, is purchased with those kinds of conditions in mind, and then my cameras can do anything else. My cameras and I, I should say, I can, I can do anything else that I Because that's kind of the, the top of the, of the, if we're talking about it in terms of like a a game, it's like being in hard mode.
I don't, I'm not into gaming, but I know you are and my son is, so I I have like peripheral knowledge of things. So, you know, agility indoors is, is like hard mode. And [00:04:00] so if it can do hard mode, it can do anything. ~So.~
Casey (she/her): Yeah. I thought it was really interesting. You and I were having a conversation once about like the team that, like photographers who shoot for you at these events, ~um, ~and talking about gear and you actually have a minimum equipment like that
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): to have because of these constraints.
Amy (she/her): I argument of like, yes, gear matters. And in
mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): setting. really matters.
Amy (she/her): Yep.
Casey (she/her): of my dog in the backyard, that's a different conversation.
Amy (she/her): Right. So for me, when I'm upgrading gear, there's always a, a really specific reason, but I think that's not, I, I don't think I'm the normal.
Casey (she/her): No.
Amy (she/her): So I think there are other things that happen when people, I mean there's this whole thing that's kind of a joke, kind of not gear acquisition syndrome, GAS,
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): gets thrown around and.
Uh, it's, it's sort of a humorous thing, but, ~um, ~I think there's, you could treat it as some somewhat of a reality of, you know, let's stop and think and, and, you know, consider whether or not we actually [00:05:00] need to do this. So you're the nervous system coach, so talk about the nervous system side of wanting new, shiny things and, you know, the, the mindset there.
Casey (she/her): Yeah, so that's the nervous system is a wild little creature. so there's this thing of like, we're always trying to control it. We don't totally understand it. And most people have a history of lived experience of trauma, of like social messaging. And so the nervous system is complicated often gear is an extent, like it's a. to soothe the nervous system. And so like I feel unsettled when I'm taking a photo. And if I buy a camera, like I'm convinced in my brain, if I buy a better camera, I'll take better photos. Therefore I will have more control. Therefore, my nervous system will quiet down. And so that's ~this m this, ~this attempt to add certainty to the uncertainty to that is creativity. like, I mean, I see pictures that are taken with. Like fricking, or the disposable cameras that we had back in like the nineties, you know, that are actually like [00:06:00] really cool because they're creative within the constraint of the contraption they we had back then. ~Um, ~and so when we have more options, endless options this
Amy (she/her): Hmm
Casey (she/her): brands and different levels of gear, there's this endless exploration of like, how can I use that to create certainty in my creativity? And then also for a lot of us. There's just a big fucking hit of dopamine when you get that box that has your brand new camera in it.
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): And so there is just this like craving, there is a consumerism element of it and a general dopamine element of it that is very valid, but also that dopamine wears off real fast and all of
Amy (she/her): Yep.
Casey (she/her): hunt for the next piece or the next solution or the next thing, and that's how you can easily fall into the trap of the gear acquisition.
Amy (she/her): So I think one of the things we wanna accomplish today is not to convince you that gear is bad or that wanting new gear is bad because it's not. But to have a conversation about what things you actually should be looking at when you're trying to make that [00:07:00] decision of should you upgrade.
Or what camera should you buy initially?
And just give some, some non, uh, shiny new thing criteria for you to, to you to work in, As I was preparing for this episode, I did go look up, um. So my primary camera is a Canon R one, and, , I looked up how Canon on their website describes this camera.
Like the first line of, of the description, it says the flagship of the Eos R line. This mirrorless camera sports, a full frame 24 megapixel BSI, stacked sensor digit accelerator processing, next gen, dual pixel intelligent af, which I always read As fuck. Sorry. ~Um, ~which makes sense here. Dual pixel, intelligent as fuck.
Yeah. Okay. And the robust, sorry, people and the robust design expected from a professional workhorse. And while all those things are true, they are also That doesn't mean a lot of anything.
So the [00:08:00] things that I'm looking for in a camera, primarily, ~ ~um, is ISO.
So you are gonna learn that I'm a a, definitely a gearhead ~and my, ~I am a evangelist for using ISO ~and ~as a way to make your photos better, ~so you'll get tired of me, hopefully not actually. ~But I will talk about ISO before I talk about a lot of other things. So for me, because I work in such bad lighting conditions, I need as much ISO as I can pull out of a camera, and that means I'm very comfortable working at ISO.
Values that make other photographers wanna faint, and I've seen it, I see the look on their faces when I, when I throw out there what my settings are at some of these events. I, and, and it's, it's fun for me at this point.
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): ~yeah, ~so for me, that's the only, that's the criteria I look at. I skim past, I've scroll past all of that marketing And find the place in the specs. And usually it's the more specs link. It's not even in the first layer of specs. Tell me what the ISO range is on this camera, and is it better than the camera I'm currently [00:09:00] using? And if it is, I'm gonna start paying attention and go, this might be a camera that I want to get, but if it doesn't have more ISO at this point, I don't, I don't need it.
I don't, probably won't buy it. ~Um. ~ so that's, that's for me what's so important. ~ ~Um, and the reason ISO is so important is it means I don't have to underexpose. And if I don't underexpose then I'm giving my auto focus system better information. It can literally see the, the dog, the subject better in those, in that low light.
And then that gets me better photos. I'm in business to sell photos if I can make my photos better by. Adding, you know, getting a better ISO range. Great. Sign me up. I can make more money. Perfect.
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): I can't, I won't make more money because I have more megapixels. Megapixels is one of those words that things that gets thrown around as the spec you should be paying attention to and it's way more hype than it is anything else.
There is software that can upsize, upscale your, your images these days. It's really good. [00:10:00] But you don't even have to have that many. My first DSLR was with a Canon D 30 and that was a three megapixel camera and I could print 16 by 20 images out of that.
Casey (she/her): Wow.
Amy (she/her): and they were gorgeous.
Casey (she/her): And I have to admit like, ' cause I just upgraded my gear. That was before you and I talked about my specific situation and like what gear to look out for me. That was one of the criteria that I was looking at
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): That was one of the first things I'd go check, which. The DSLR to the muralist that I bought, like blowing, jumping numbers.
Amy (she/her): Yes.
Casey (she/her): And also, it's funny to realize like, actually that kind of isn't that important
Amy (she/her): No. Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): remember the first digital camera I bought, like one of those little ones you put in your pocket, you know, that was the thing. Oh my gosh.
I got a 12 megapixel.
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): that fits in my pocket. You're still shooting eight? ~Like ~who are you?
Amy (she/her): ~Yes.~
Casey (she/her): we've come such a long way in the last, oh gosh, that was 25 years ago.
Amy (she/her): let's not go
Casey (she/her): Right?
Amy (she/her): ~Um, ~megapixels is one of those things [00:11:00] that Yes, is, is thrown around. It's the first thing people latch onto. Um. I, there are some drawbacks to having more megapixels though, and I think that gets neglected in the, in the conversation. A 45 megapixel camera means that that file size is gonna be massive compared to my 24 megapixel camera.
~Um. ~And I'm all about speed and efficiency. 45 megapixels is not efficient and it's not fast.
Casey (she/her): Okay.
Amy (she/her): terms of the, the workflow behind, at the end of the day, it's the camera can handle it, the cards are, can handle it. That's not that issue. It's the issue of storage. It's the is issue of downloading speeds and just how much longer it's gonna take me to download if I shoot the same number of images.
It's gonna take me X times longer to download images that are 45 megapixels versus 24.
Casey (she/her): ~And ~at the end of the day, for you, especially doing this professionally, ~like ~it doesn't change the quality of
Amy (she/her): yes.
Casey (she/her): to your client, if it doesn't make you more money costs you more time, then it [00:12:00] actually costs you more money.
Amy (she/her): The other thing that people say, but I need to crop more, and that's their reason for wanting more megapixels. And I, I would just like to suggest that there are other ways to solve that problem. ~Um. ~And that might mean you're buying a different lens instead of buying a new camera.
It might mean that you're buying an extender or a teleconverter, that that magnifies the length, the reach of your current lens. ~ ~Um, but I also would like to suggest you just find ways to get closer to your subject. So
Casey (she/her): Yes.
Amy (she/her): sometimes it just as a matter of. Moving your feet and getting closer. ~Um, ~and if it's not possible, I know with birds and wildlife, that's not always possible.
Then just wait for the next opportunity where they might be a little bit closer.
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): lots of ways to solve that problem. That does not include buying a new camera that has, um, I think I heard Sony's coming out with like a 67 or some ungodly number of megapixels on in a new camera. And it's probably in the rumor stage at this point, but.
I, I, no, they've like made me wanna No.
Casey (she/her): No.
Amy (she/her): Make better cameras and better auto [00:13:00] focus. Don't give me more freaking megapixels. So,
Casey (she/her): is such a like beautiful transition into the next point of this because you know that there are YouTubers that are going to be hyping that camera up. Like,
Amy (she/her): yep.
Casey (she/her): megapixels. Here's the solution to all your problems, like run out and buy it. Now is there is also an element that like. The industry surrounding this influences the conversation as well. I think this is such a, is such a big part of the conversation that we're. and I are kind of on the opposite of, like we said at the beginning, like if you have the financial resources and you like gear for the sake of gear, you are in good company.
Both of us are tech nerds. Like Amy loves the camera gear. ~Let's, ~I'm new to cameras, but I can tell you it's gonna be a problem. And I also am somebody who has multiple computers. 'cause I have a computer that's just designed for gaming. Like are not anti-tech people, but we want you to make. I'm gonna, I'm gonna call 'em responsible choices.
Um, you know, it's a lot,
Amy (she/her): Yeah.[00:14:00]
Casey (she/her): through choices ~and~
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): don't have the money, if you don't have the resources, if you are brand new to this, don't feel like you have to go drop. 'cause also this gear gets expensive fast. Don't feel like you have to go drop $15,000
Amy (she/her): All
Casey (she/her): Be allowed to start calling yourself a photographer and taking photos, but you search YouTube and, and I just went through this because I was looking to upgrade gear and we're gonna talk a little more in a minute about like, when is it time to upgrade and how do you make that decision?
~So ~I just went through this process and I would go onto YouTube or I would search ~like ~best like pro prosumer camera. I want that kind of mid tier is what I was thinking about. All of the hype is this will fix all your problems and this is the best thing ever. And you just need this. And ~like ~you'll be award-winning photographer ~and oh, ~and then you need this gadget to go with it and you need this lens to go with it.
And like you should have one of these to make it, you know, like remote shoot and like all of this extra crap. If somebody on YouTube is reviewing something. Look at the links 'cause they might be getting a commission for everything they buy. I'm not gonna say this is true for all YouTubers,
Amy (she/her): No.
Casey (she/her): not saying those [00:15:00] that do this don't deserve that commission.
Amy (she/her): Right.
Casey (she/her): do go by through these people sometimes 'cause they taught me what I needed to know. But are they actually somebody who uses this camera in a dark, dirty horse arena, shooting fast dogs on an agility course? Or are they somebody who borrowed this camera , for two weeks specifically because the, the camera is launching and. Who, whatever brand is trying to hype their, their newest thing. So
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): there's, there's a balance of like, when you are researching this stuff, think about who you are researching and what their motivation is to sell you this product. And
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): more than that, like even more than that, like. I'm gonna turn this back to you, Amy. Like, so how do we know it's time I've, whether I've bought into the hype, whether I'm ready, whether I've been saving, I think it's time. How the hell do I know when it's time? And like, how do I kind of start to make I, well, not even how to make that decision.
I, I, that's kind of a separate conversation, but like, how do I know when it's time?
Amy (she/her): ~Yeah. Um, ~well, I think. Uh, [00:16:00] you and I have worked through this, and kind of the best way to do it is to talk to a professional, talk to someone who's got the experience ~ ~to to say, Hey, these are, here are the things you should be looking at, and here are the things you can ignore, like megapixels.
~um, ~but if you wanna to, to work through it yourself, I mean, the things you should be looking for are, can you show the problem in a, in an actual photo?
Like what is the evidence that you are having trouble? What is the evidence for making the upgrade that you can see in your photos? Not just, oh, I feel like I need something new. I feel like I could be a better photographer if I had something new. But what, what is showing up in your photos that make you say I need to have a new camera?
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): Patterns are always more powerful than one-offs. So,
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): the difference between, you know, anecdotal data and a study that was, you know, peer reviewed. So you want to look at your photos and evaluate, am I seeing a recurring pattern in what's going wrong? ~Um, ~and maybe I don't know how to fix it.
Maybe I don't know what the [00:17:00] source is, but can I find the pattern in what's happening?
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): Photographers always have bad shots. We do. And if you don't know that yet, I'm telling you now even I have a shit ton of bad photos. And that's just how, how things work.
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): ~So ~if you can separate yourself from, oh my God, there's a bad photo.
Okay, move on. But if you can find a recurring pattern in those photos and in photos that you thought should have worked, then that's another place to to look. Um. Be really real with yourself about your fundamental skills. Do you understand exposure? Do you understand, understand shutter speed, aperture and ISO and how they work together and how you use them to create the best exposure possible and the best photo possible?
Casey (she/her): Okay.
Amy (she/her): if Don't know your fundamentals, then that is probably gonna be, um, a thing that you need to work on first
You [00:18:00] look at upgrading a camera.
Casey (she/her): So one of the things you do in your work is you actually do these like coaching critiquing calls. So you can like, people can join your membership, bring a photo, and you'll kind of talk through all of this nuance and context with them. And so we have done a set of bird photos when I was shooting cranes with my 20-year-old DSLR.
And then last night we looked at a set of vulture photos that I just took with my brand new Ken and R six, mark two, and. Now sitting from here, I'm like, ~uh, ~I probably didn't actually need to upgrade cameras quite yet. Like, I am seeing that my fundamentals were still lacking. And when we had the conversation about me upgrading, like I have the financial resources, like there's other markers of just like, I like new gear.
My camera's 20 years old, I wanna buy something new. ~Like, ~that was kind of the, the gist of the conversation. I was seeing a pattern that I wanna shoot birds and dogs. I wanna shoot things that move. And I was having. problem with focus on a 20-year-old
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): was running into ISO problems.
I now see like the ISO range on this cannon as bonkers compared [00:19:00] to my DSLR. And so I was like, now I see some of the problems. And so I did have that repeatable pattern of the things that I'm particularly interested in. was struggling to get the focus to work. that just technology versus skill? Probably a bit of both. But then I look at some, the conversation we had last night, and I won't get into the details, but it kind of boiled down to like, don't be a knucklehead. Use your ISO at your shutter speed better. and so there's a big fundamentals lesson that like, I'm still having one of the same problems that I had with my old camera, with my new camera, because it's a fundamentals problem. And so. Not mad at buying a new camera at all, but
Amy (she/her): No.
Casey (she/her): that a new camera's not gonna fix all your problems. And so, yeah, like really, those two for me really stand out as there was a repeat pattern. My fundamentals do need work. Could I have continued to learn more with the camera? I had? Absolutely, I probably would've been fine holding out, upgrading for a while longer.
Amy (she/her): I, for me, the way I look at it with, in your [00:20:00] case is that we solved an auto focus problem. Really quickly, and then that leaves you room to not worry about autofocus as much because the, the, the skill that it takes to track a bird or track a dog, ~um, ~moving with A-D-S-L-R is a lot more intense. Yeah. ~ ~So I know because we've had long conversations about lots of ~things. Um. ~You have a history in the military, you have a history with guns and shooting, and so you understand you have some of that muscle memory and that skill that comes in really handy with trying to take pictures.
There's a reason why we call it shooting for photography because there's so much overlap. ~Um, ~I only have the camera skills other than the, the, the brief moment when I have held a, a, my dad's 22 and, and shot at.
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): cans in the, in the gravel pit, but that's not enough.
Casey (she/her): Yeah. A little bit of experience. ~Yeah. ~With
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): military. Yeah. There are definitely things that translated into my advantage. But also, like you said, that, like specifically that auto focus
Amy (she/her): your auto focus improved [00:21:00] dramatically. Instantaneously by simply changing the gear. Yes. And to me that's a win to me. That makes sense. Then
if you still had the same auto focus problems after buying the new camera, then we would, we need to set, take a step back and go, Hmm, I think we solved the wrong problem.
But you didn't, you immediately had an improvement in the autofocus. So that's, that's a win to
Casey (she/her): And like you said, that is nice because we did take out one element. So now I can go back and, and this is the learning process. I don't feel bad at all about the fact, uh,
Amy (she/her): Right.
Casey (she/her): I'm still doing some of the things I'm doing. I don't know because I don't know. But now it's one element I don't have to think about.
I can really go back and focus on. Shutter speed and ISO and that part of it. So
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): that like, like you said, ~I, ~I like hearing about this. Now it's interesting from the perspective of like having done the gear upgrade, having had you
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): photos and seeing like, oh, I very much bought into some, like, like shiny things and I need [00:22:00] dopamine, which is fine, and I also still have fundamentals to work on. So. If you can't tell whether it's the gear or the skill, ~like ~how does somebody start to piece that apart?
Amy (she/her): ~Um, I ~mean, I think we touched on it already, ~ ~to to get your work in front of a professional, someone who has the experience to be able to look at a photo and say, oh yeah, this is what's going on. So to me, I think the, the best example of this and what I, when I work with people, the, you know, so often it's about, well, my photo is blurry and, you know, so I want a better camera because that'll make my photos not blurry and actually.
That's probably the last thing that's gonna fix your, your blurry photos. ~ ~Um, in your case it fixed blurry photos, but there's a whole list of other things that it could be. So there is, you know, going back to fundamentals, there is, ~um, ~the possibility that it's just too slow for shutter speed. Action photos need a 2500th of a second, not a 500th of a second.
~Um, ~it could be that you need, ~ ~[00:23:00] uh, better support for the camera, so there's. Uh, camera shake can cause blurry photos because there's that little bit of movement ~that~ the the camera's picking up. ~Um, ~you know, unless you have your camera on a tripod or a monopod, it, it's just natural. We cannot hold perfectly Still, we just can't do that.
So maybe you need a a better, you know, a monopod or maybe you do need to up your shutter. Because you can get the shutter speed fast enough, in some case, in most cases, to, to overcome that, uh, the blur from camera shake.
Casey (she/her): Okay,
Amy (she/her): sometimes it's environmental. ~ ~if if it's a hundred degrees and you're shooting, ~ ~um, a bird that's 500 yards away.
Okay, five, that's too much for a lens. Like 50 feet away. Let's, let's revise that number. Yeah.
Casey (she/her): go.
Amy (she/her): Okay. But the, there's heat haze, you think about when you're driving and there's a mirage on the road. Same thing happens with the heat coming off of, of the environment. And the, the farther out your subject is, the more you're gonna have that distortion in your images from heat and there's just nothing you can do about
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): ~Um, ~I have [00:24:00] had, uh. Outdoor events where I've been photographing a dog that was coming from way far away. And the photos when I, when they're at the beginning of, of, um, so it's Fast Cat where it's basically a hundred yard dash, the photos from the start line. Uh, it's not the gear, it is the fact that there is a hundred yards between me and that dog, and there's all that heat coming off of the grass.
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): I can't fix that. That's not gear, that's not, it's just, it is what it is. So the only way to minimize it is just to wait till the dog is a whole lot closer and hope and cross your fingers, ~ ~um, that you are gonna minimize it that way. So,
Casey (she/her): right.
Amy (she/her): ~um. ~Focus, autofocus, the camera didn't focus in the right place.
That can be a skill thing. ~ ~Um, it can be an understanding of the focus system on the camera. It can be a, um, it can be a lot of things that aren't about the gear. This is the one area that it can be about the gear. And in your situation it was,
auto new, auto focus systems are phenomenal.
Casey (she/her): [00:25:00] Yeah.
Amy (she/her): the people who are reluctant to update, upgrade to mirrorless, I will just say if that's.
if, if you really, truly want an improvement in autofocus, mirrorless is the way to go. 'cause the autofocus systems of even the most me basic mirrorless cameras blows every other DSLR out of the water, Um, one more thing that blur could be from, and it has nothing to do with the camera body, it's the camera lens is if the subject is too close to your lens, every lens has a minimum focusing distance. And if you're trying to focus on something that's too close, that could be the reason. So you need just a little more distance or a different lens.
You really, not a different lens. You just need to understand that minimum focusing distance. And none of those, other than not a focus are about upgrading.
Casey (she/her): right, I in that last one, I need my dogs to understand that I have a minimum
Amy (she/her): Yes.
Casey (she/her): because they like to run straight up and boop me in the face and I'm like, I need, I need three to five feet please. I'm trying
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): cute you are.
Amy (she/her): So there, there's kind of the how to know, And even if it's a one hour zoom [00:26:00] call, um, just to kind of help you figure out what you're seeing
It, it's amazing what you can get out of that. So,
Casey (she/her): By pro. I'm gonna go ahead and plug Amy here and say book call with her because ~I, I mean, I, I, ~I say that partly 'cause you're my friend and I work with you and obviously I wanna promote
Amy (she/her): yeah. Yeah.
Casey (she/her): like there are professionals out there. I've seen this like in other groups where the professional says, oh, I shoot with A, X, Y, and Z, therefore your problem is X, Y, and Z.
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): get in front of a professional. But if you feel like the answer they're giving you is just, oh, you have to buy more gear. Maybe try a different professional and see if,
Amy (she/her): Get a second opinion.
Casey (she/her): opinion. Just to be safe. Yeah. 'cause I think there are experts who are good photographers who know what they're looking at.
And also try to oversimplify these answers too. so I
Amy (she/her): I
Casey (she/her): out that there,
Amy (she/her): ~ ~will, I promise.
Casey (she/her): professional can be Amy and she'll never oversimplify anything.
Amy (she/her): I will never, ever oversimplify anything. ~Sorry.~
Casey (she/her): Nope.
Amy (she/her): Sorry. Not sorry. I mean no, it's not in in me. To oversimplify, it is in me to dig into the nuance and the context and find out what's really going on
Casey (she/her): yeah,
Amy (she/her): that you [00:27:00] can spend your money in the best way possible
Casey (she/her): yeah,
Amy (she/her): spend your money. ~So~
Casey (she/her): ~Yeah, ~exactly.
Amy (she/her): Let's spin it back around to nervous system stuff again. What are some things that you can do to help figure out if it's a, if it's a, I need a new camera because I really need a new camera, or it's just my nervous system firing off.
Casey (she/her): Yeah, so one of my personal favorites, I do this very much with myself, is I will let myself go online and research and shop and find the things. I'm not allowed to buy anything for. A week or a month, kind of depending on how much the thing costs. Like I spent a solid month or more mulling over this conversation of upgrading my gear and looking at prices and I had picked a camera and was sure that's what I was gonna do.
And then I had a conversation with Amy and I was like, oh crap. That's not gonna be the right camera for my goals. Which I was so glad I had that conversation before I
Amy (she/her): Yeah.
Casey (she/her): something. ~Um, but I think the, a great way. ~Our nervous system works in bursts. Emotions don't last long if you don't keep feeding them, and so you put it in a [00:28:00] cart. Lord, love the Amazon. Save for LA later. Feature mine is full of stuff. Put it in the cart, save it for later. Close the browser tab. Go away, like stop shopping for a week, and in a week come back and check. Does that still feel right? ~Is it, ~is it actually affordable? Is it the right piece? Have you had a chance to go through some photos, some more, and then. Some of it is that element, I think we talked about this in the last episode of like coming at things with curiosity. And so I wasn't financially in a position to have bought the camera that I just did, I would've leaned more into the curiosity and had a different conversation with you about like,
Amy (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Casey (she/her): here's the the problems I keep seeing, the patterns I'm seeing, and go back to that teaching exploration side of things instead of the gear solve problem thing.
~So I think.~
Amy (she/her): Right. And there are absolutely things we could have done more with your DSLR,
Casey (she/her): Totally.
Amy (she/her): to, to pull more out of it and more out of you. ~Um, ~so we kind of short you short-circuited that, that process, and I don't, I don't disagree with that.
Casey (she/her): [00:29:00] yeah,
Amy (she/her): If you didn't have, weren't ready to buy whatever, there's so much, I mean, the fundamentals, right, you know, are, are the first is to really work on those.
And it would include working on the autofocus, you know, side of things. Um, we just took that outta the equation because now you've got a better autofocus system. So now we can, you know, worry about other things, but
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): exactly.
Casey (she/her): yeah, so I think it's, it's slowing down is one of the big time, one of the big things, and getting really honest with yourself. Like I can be very, I've done a lot of work in this area. I like shiny new things. I like shopping, I like spending money. Mm. And so, like, I know that that is part of it for me.
And so I can be really honest with myself and like, because it was a big purchase, I chatted through it with my husband and like. I could acknowledge ~like, ~Hey, I want this. I know it's expensive. Here's the reasons why. Also, I just want it for no other reason than I want it. And I can say that, and that's valid. Versus like trying to hide that part. ~And ~I think people [00:30:00] get caught up in a little bit of a shame thing there of like, I just want the thing, I just want to spend the money, but that makes me a bad person. Like just own it. Let that be a part of the
Amy (she/her): Yeah,
Casey (she/her): That's okay
Amy (she/her): I think we should wrap this up by talking about , if you're focused on I need to upgrade my camera to make me a better photographer, ~ ~um, what that's actually preventing you from doing. And to me what it's preventing you from doing is actually getting out there and just taking photos.
Casey (she/her): Yeah.
Amy (she/her): Um, 'cause it hijacks your brain. It hijacks your nervous system into I need this new gear to be the superhero to come in and, and save me from my bad photos. And. Fundamentally what it comes down to is you gotta go do the work. And that means taking a lot of bad photos,
Casey (she/her): Mm-hmm.
Amy (she/her): a lot of good photos, hopefully, eventually, and you should see that improvement, hopefully, but
Casey (she/her): Right.
Amy (she/her): other ways to, um, get that improvement that you want that doesn't involve buying a new camera.. Okay. So I'm gonna wrap it up with a quote from one of my favorite photographers, ~ ~uh, David [00:31:00] Erman. And he says, buy it because it's the right tool for you to do what you wanna do in the way you want to do it. Then this is the important part. Stop chasing the gear and start chasing the shot. So. I think that's what we wish for everybody is just go out and chase your shot, because that's what photography is.
Casey (she/her): All right, well if you
on figuring out what camera to buy, ~uh, ~check out Amy and her work, ~uh, ~link to find her, and all of her stuff is in the show notes. ~Uh, ~if you wanna talk more about your nervous system and talk yourself into not buying some gear yet, ~um, ~or maybe buying the gear, I can, I can be an enabler.
~Uh, ~check me out. ~Um, ~I do nervous assistant coaching. My link is in the bio, and we'll see you next week for another episode of the Focus Trap.