Inspiring Subjects: The Most Important Aspect of a Photographer’s Toolkit

Anytime we talk about a “tool” in photography, it’s mostly about photography gear. You can have the best camera and lenses with you, and you can spend loads of time watching and reading reviews of photography gear—but what good is gear if you do not get to use it? Being locked down in 2020 has made many photographers realize that the most important photography tool is not our gear; it’s something much more fundamental. Photographer James Popsys knows what it is:

For Popsys, all the camera gear and your photography knowledge do not matter if you are not able to actually use them. And to be able to use them, you need to have something meaningful in front of the camera. That’s what’s most important: your subject.

“For me, without a doubt, the most important thing in a photographer’s toolkit is an inspiring subject.”

Subjects can be inspiring. They have the ability to visually engage the viewers. They also do a great job of telling a story and setting the tone of your image. Your job as a photographer is to compose the image, compositionally and in terms of lighting, in a way that does justice to the subject.

Looking at where we are in 2020, this discussion seems very relevant. With most of us locked down during the pandemic, many of us photographers struggled because we had nowhere to go and nothing to photograph.

Do you agree with Popsys’s idea? Let us know what you think.

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