Prashant Prakash
Well-known member
- Post score: 7
- #1
NOTE: Although I was two-minded if I should post this in the General Discussion Forum or Wildlife Presentation one, I decided to post in latter as I was attaching a couple of my shots. 
As much we get interested and at times buy the best gear that we can afford / save and sell other stuff to finance the gear purchases we make, how often do we check the level of skills we have developed over the similar course of time??? I personally follow the principle of exhausting the gear to its maximum by knowing the features it provides and learning how to use them in the optimum way to get the images we yearn for... How well we know our systems that despite knowing its shortcomings we find workarounds that make the job done instead of blaming it for not getting a shot.
One way I evaluate myself(or do a firmware check if you will) is to go through my catalogue and compare images over various filters, for eg. An image taken with a camera when bought new vs 2 years down the line. An image of a species taken at two different points in time etc, hope you can get where I am going with this.
With constant learning from people you meet, attending workshops and YouTube videos by @Steve and others whom themselves have years of first hand experience in the challenges we face in field and how to counter them, and even amazing forums like this one where there are loads of people willing to jump in and share their knowledge, a great deal can be learnt and then practiced on the field and develop our skills and creative eye.
In conclusion I feel buying better gear is only the first(and probably the easiest) step, with which we need to constantly update ourselves to be able to master the features effectively that it provides and when you feel that gear is saturating your very skill and brimming up your creative containers, it is very much the time to jump to the better ones.
Sorry for the long read, I have attached a comparison depicting my own experience with a species I photographed when I was not even into wildlife photography to when I learned and upgraded myself and the gear a few years later. I am sure neither are the best pictures of this species and I am also sure that I will take better ones a few years later If I am updating myself as well.
Do let me know if there are any other things to be thought after to improvise oneself skillwise...!!
As much we get interested and at times buy the best gear that we can afford / save and sell other stuff to finance the gear purchases we make, how often do we check the level of skills we have developed over the similar course of time??? I personally follow the principle of exhausting the gear to its maximum by knowing the features it provides and learning how to use them in the optimum way to get the images we yearn for... How well we know our systems that despite knowing its shortcomings we find workarounds that make the job done instead of blaming it for not getting a shot.
One way I evaluate myself(or do a firmware check if you will) is to go through my catalogue and compare images over various filters, for eg. An image taken with a camera when bought new vs 2 years down the line. An image of a species taken at two different points in time etc, hope you can get where I am going with this.
With constant learning from people you meet, attending workshops and YouTube videos by @Steve and others whom themselves have years of first hand experience in the challenges we face in field and how to counter them, and even amazing forums like this one where there are loads of people willing to jump in and share their knowledge, a great deal can be learnt and then practiced on the field and develop our skills and creative eye.
In conclusion I feel buying better gear is only the first(and probably the easiest) step, with which we need to constantly update ourselves to be able to master the features effectively that it provides and when you feel that gear is saturating your very skill and brimming up your creative containers, it is very much the time to jump to the better ones.
Sorry for the long read, I have attached a comparison depicting my own experience with a species I photographed when I was not even into wildlife photography to when I learned and upgraded myself and the gear a few years later. I am sure neither are the best pictures of this species and I am also sure that I will take better ones a few years later If I am updating myself as well.
Do let me know if there are any other things to be thought after to improvise oneself skillwise...!!
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