The Online Photographer

I pretty much have a camera with me whenever I leave the house. It used to be an Olympus XA in the distant past, and a Canon S70 or S95 camera in digital times. But in a way I was getting a bit frustrated by the knowledge I could do better if I would have made that picture with my DSLR.

It was one of the main reasons to switch to M43; an E-M5 with 12 and 45mm prime only need a very small bag I can use as fanny pack, shoulder bag or toss into any bigger bag I am carrying (for shopping or whatever).

The last year and a half has resulted in more keepers than in my most photography intense years in the distant past...

But, but, but... don't you always carry your iPhone with you?

:)

Who really carries their camera all the time?

If I leave the house, I try to make sure my Canon G12 is tucked under my jacket or overshirt. When I leave it behind, I inevitably miss an image.

Yesterday, we took a stroll at a cemetery when this presented itself:

http://i136.photobucket.com/albums/q166/JockElliott/G12Oakwoodfallandvarious005.jpg

I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Maybe Panasonic's new LX100 would float your boat, Mike.

I very nearly always carry a camera. Maybe not when I go out to get the mail. I keep an RX100 in my purse (I don't have a smartphone), I call it my "purse cam." (I guess that's my answer to the small-camera question.) If I'm planning to shoot I'll take my K-5, an MX, or my PZ-1, depending on what sort of mood I'm in. However, the RX100 gets a lot of use for those unexpected things, and it performs admirably. I actually find it easier for wide angles, which is not how I normally see (I'm more a short-tele person). It's also really useful for those family get-together snapshots. I mostly don't like to take photos of social gatherings, but if someone wants one, I have a decent camera in my purse.

Hi Mike,
At times, you really make me laugh, but then I stop and think for a while, and I realize you are not a photographer.
Who is a photographer then?
A photographer is a person who thinks about photos during the day, thinks about photos when falling asleep and wakes up with some fresh ideas about how to make the photos. If shooting life as it happens, outside the studio or an organized shooting session, is what interests that person, then she or he will always carry a camera when out and about. This is what I do all the time. But in case of this autumn tree, I would pass by without budging. After all, I am a B&W only person.
Take care.
Marek

About 3 years ago I started carrying my camera with me (almost) every time I go out. The idea was both to see more pictures and to take more pictures.

I would say it has worked. With the camera in hand my brain is always looking for pictures, for stories in the street, for shapes, contrasts, colors, all the elements of a good picture. And since the camera is in my hand, I take a lot more of the pictures I see.

That's not to say my hit rate is that much higher but I definitely feel more justified in calling myself a photographer. And if my pictures aren't all portfolio quality, there are many that are blog-worthy.

I have also, by the way, had to switch from a Nikon D300 which gave me tennis elbow from carrying all the time to a smaller, lighter mirrorless (currently the Sony Nex-7 but I have been thinking of switching either to an A6000 (or the rumored forthcoming A7000 or to Fuji (either the XT-1 or the rumored forthcoming X-Pro 2)).
Adam

I walk my two dogs daily and it's the one time I usually don't bother with the camera, even if I have it in my backpack. The dogs just seem to know when my finger is pressing the shutter, and I don't think even 10-axis stabilization would help that kind of shake.

On the subject of upper Midwest U.S. weather I agree wholeheartedly. Duluth has been a total treat to us since moving from the Alaskan rainforest in July. Gentle breezes, 70 degree sunny days, and now a glorious fall with only the necessity of raking and gutter cleaning to bother us. Yes we know we will soon be chipping through 10 feet of solid ice to find our cars, but for now we love it.

This week I was in Mazatlan Mexico on a boat deal. Early mornings I walked and took some nice first light photos with my Sony A7r. then when the boat got hauled out for the bottom inspection I took pictures of the rudders, propellers and zincs with my iPhone and sent them to my client, from my phone, immediately. there would have been no time or place to download and send photos and get a response. twice in one day I had the "best" camera and they were totally different.

sometimes I (and, it seems, you) need a camera that's the right size to carry around while doing something else that might require both hands. Something that will fit in a pocket and that doesn't need to be looked after; it can be ignored until needed.

It needs to be reasonably robust, reasonably priced, and have a proper viewfinder. Unfortunately the last two seem often to be mutually exclusive; we now seem to be expected to shell out many hundreds of pounds to get something that used to be in nearly every camera.

See yesterday's post about the iPhone.
I don't carry a cell phone at all, but your experience does show how having one would be helpful!

well, I don't carry my *camera* with me all the time, but I do have my iPhone6 in my pocket!

I got to attend a Lionel Hampton concert late in his life. He was very elderly and couldn't play at the blinding speed he had as a younger man. I was prepared to be sad at his loss of ability but was actually very surprised at his contribution. It seemed more spectacular than anything I had ever heard him do before. In an interview shortly afterward he made this statement ( which I seen attributed to other musicians as well) " I don't play all the notes-just the right ones!"
Same way with photos Mike!

The eye is a terrific lens, the brain a world class sensor, and there's always plenty of memory.

This has been a beautiful year visually in the upper Midwest. Most years my lawn turns partly brown by the end of July (2012 is was mostly brown by end of June) but this year it's been Irish emerald green the entire spring and summer. Looks great but expensive in both money for gasoline and my time keeping the two acres I'm responsible for trimmed. It's been worth it. Has the soybean field behind your house been harvested yet? If not, be sure to keep the house windows closed while the combine is doing it's work. Soybean harvest creates huge clouds of dirt and dust.

This looks like a job for .... iPhone 6 ... to the rescue.

”Who really carries their camera all the time?"

Like many people these days, I do. It’s not my favorite camera, but it does remarkably well considering it also serves as my primary computing and communication device. Of course, I’m talking about my iPhone...

Of course I carry my camera all the time. And you should to! Then you would have gotten the tree-shot, the better one. So, now you know.

See. You need a companionable camera. :)

Hasn't that question been 'overtaken by events?' Or are there still photographers out there who do not consider smart phone cameras real cameras? Even after smart phone photos have been published in every publication from The National Geographic to the NYT? I don't have a smart phone, so I do carry one of my cameras a Sony TX 10 with me all the time. When I had access to an Epson 9900 printer I found that I could make great 2x4 foot prints from the Sony jpg files - I did not try to make the prints any bigger because I only had a 24 inch wide roll of paper.

It's no big deal if you missed a shot or two. To put it in context, there are photos just begging to be shot every minute, every second around the world; one cannot get to them all.

iPhone, last night

(Nothing beats iPhone panoramas, IMHO)

iPhone, published in Autoweek, October 13

I rest my case.

Not only do I carry a camera all the time, but currently I'm toting a Nikon D7000 with a nice big 18-140mm lens. I've gotten used to doing this. In fact, if I show up in my usual haunts WITHOUT a camera, people ask what's wrong with me.

Other times I'm carrying a Ukrainian rangefinder or a Canon EOS 10s; a little bit primitive, but it runs and it's paid for.

With best regards,

Stephen

I carry a camera religiously. These days it's either a D3200 (usually with the 35DX) or an FE with a 50/1.8, but it's been any number of compact DSLR's, SLT's or Mirrorless bodies over the years. I've actually switched systems to get a better light carry option (for several years circumstances required that my primary body be a light carry camera, I'm now back to being able to regularly use a more capable body and have gone back to largish DSLR's as a primary).

My phone does have one of the better cameras available, but I absolutely loathe trying to use the thing. I've had several high-end phones over the years, all have completely sucked as photo taking devices.

Always. I normally carry a satchel bag anyway (a cheap, tatty canvas thing you can buy on markets for around £20) for my Nexus tablet, newspaper and a folding brolly (this is London). A small Domke insert in one corner and the XE-2 with 18-55 slips right in. There is just no reason NOT to take one.

And there are many times I'm glad I did.

I recently found a home printed B&W 8x10 of my twenty-something self, dressed "Manhattan" (workday suit w/tie) complete with Burt Reynolds mustache and a Rollei 35s around my neck. That was the early seventies, and it was my habit to walk toward the U.N. from my office in the Chrysler building at lunchtime. Sometimes with a friend, usually alone, I was a street photographer - I just didn't know it. Tourists, New Yorkers, buildings, skies, bridges, cars, nooks & crannies, all fair game.

Way too fast forward 40 years - Los Angeles .... still carry a camera every day, still love 40mm lenses, still shoot as much as I can, still fascinated by my new home town of thirty years. Something new every day. Family, grandchildren, the beauty of California, unique architecture, unique people, unique cars. Even found a mint Rollei 35s. The fascination is new every day.

Despite being given a number of cameras, my wife, both sons, & their wives are iphone & iPad shooters. They don't know their supposed limitations - they just produce a constant flow of timely, funny, warm, pics and videos, effortless "how did you do that?" effects, an ongoing diary of life. And life is great.

Stay busy & healthy Mike, and "don't leave home without it".

Cheers!
Gabe

When I think about, and it's slightly surprising, the only time that I go out of the apartment building without a camera is when I'm going for a run round the park. Usually that device would be either a Mju-II or a Rollei 35S, depending on how "manual" I'm feeling. They don't *always* get used of course, but I do seem constantly to have a few rolls of film waiting to be home-developed and contacted. When I'm going out with the intention of making pictures then one of the tiny cameras comes along too, in addition to the bigger, heavier device.

I might accidentally leave the house without a wallet or keys but never without a camera. Not since I missed that giant Extraterrestrial Landing after stumbling upon an illicit liaison between Beyoncé and Rush Limbaugh at the carnival that was ignited by a meteor shower...

Yes, me, nearly always. This is why I'm finding the Leica X2 and X so appealing: handy size, good lens, etc.

On the rare occasions when I dont, I have the iPhone along.

That's a silly question. I carry a camera all the time. And I miss nothing.

^Kirk Tuck, lol.

I'll join the chorus with my own "always have a camera." Feel naked without one. Since I'm almost always leaving the house with a messenger bag, I keep two cameras in there: always the RX-1, and usually a Pentax with a longish prime attached, and the 15 if I'm heading to a job site. The RX-1's a beauty (and I'm really happy with its little fill flash), while the Pentax is pretty portable and occasionally brilliant.

As for iPhones, yes, I've got one too, but I just can't seem to gel with how you open the app, how you frame the picture, or how you deal with common less-than-ideal problems like backlight or a scene with high tonal range. Ironically it's usually just easier to reach for another camera.

This summer I made a concerted effort to use the iPhone as a camera, and I shot a lot of pictures. Of course there's always a few interesting ones, but on the whole it felt like a crap shoot rather than a photo shoot (har har).

I used to carry a Nikon D70 everywhere, then a D300 everywhere. For a short time it was a Contax 645 in my shoulder bag every day. That didn't last long. Then it was a Fuji X-Pro 1 and then a Zeiss Ikon ZM. Now I'm down to a Ricoh GR10 that fits anywhere and everywhere. I have an iPhone 4 but the lens is getting scratched up, I don't like having to swipe, swipe, get my fingers out of the lens, etc to take a photo. I prefer film, anyway.
The Ricoh is for when I don't expect to be taking any photos. I.e., walking to the shops or something. If I'm going out for a walk I'll bring the Zeiss Ikon. If I'm going somewhere to make photos I'll bring the Contax, a tripod, more than one lens, etc.