Clicking on my usual web destinations today led me to some enviable images of photographer Vincent Laforet's gear. Laforet headed off to the Olympics on behalf of Newsweek but, before leaving, he snapped some pics of the camera equipment he'd be taking along to Beijing. It isn't the images themselves that I envy, it's the freaking gear! Holy crap! Now I feel like a pauper-azzi!
I get why Laforet believes he needs so many cameras and lenses and accessories: He'll be photographing a wide range of Olympic events and he wants to be prepared for just about anything and everything. But still, that's a lotta gear!!! And I want it. I want it all! I even want the stuff I'd probably never use.
When I go to work, I carry two camera bodies (my 5D and a 20D for a backup) and two or three lenses. I also pack a few speedlites, a meter, some Ebay transmitters and receivers, two or three monolights, stands, various modifiers, a couple of reflectors, and some expendables like tape, gels, etc. That's enough to make me feel like a pack-mule when I show up at a location. But Laforet, heading off to Beijing, makes me feel like I go to work naked. Well, metaphorically naked from an equipment point-of-view.
The candid triptych at the top is Devin showing off her bubble-gum blowing skills. It has nothing to do with today's post unless some clever, naked-chick-pic, art critic can find symbolic, artistic, meaning in it. But if not, who cares?
6 comments:
I have a friend who's bankrupting himself with gear. I myself have had an expensive July replacing my backup camera and buying a medium format film camera and scanner. Shooting the Olympics is probably typical of the high end of what Laforet does, and he has the tools to handle that job as a matter of course. If he rents it, it's insured, etc. etc. Sports photography is probably the one area left where the market and profit margin is big enough to justify massive amounts of equipment. If you're not insane, you buy only what you need, and use the hell out of it to make your money back, if you're no mere hobbyist. :)
Mere hobbyist here. The wife went nuts when I packed for Peru, including Machu Picchu, a couple weeks ago. 3 bodies (40D, 30D [IR], G9) 70-200, 24-70, 10-22{EF-S), 1.4X, 580EX, ST-E2, hoods, spare batteries, 2 chargers, flashlight, filters, cloths, Epson P-5000, 250 GB ext. HD, various cables to connect the mess at times, all in a Think Tank Airport International Security rolling bag.
Didn't use the 70-200, 1.4x, or the strobe but "used the hell" out of almost everything else. Figured I didn't buy it to leave it home. Weight restriction on the TRAIN forced a compromise on the MP portion of the trip, no problem on the planes, although I didn't carry on anything else.
Blank-- I'd love to see sales charts from the major camera and gear manufacturers since the dSLR revolution got hot and heavy.
George-- Chuckled at your second paragraph cuz, when I read your 1rst, I thought to myself, "He's going to Peru, the Andes, and MP... bet he never uses the 70-200 and probly not the speedlite either."
"The candid triptych at the top is Devin showing off her bubble-gum blowing skills. It has nothing to do with today's post unless some clever, naked-chick-pic, art critic can find symbolic, artistic, meaning in it.? "
The symbolism is obvious... The bubble bursting is a metaphor for how his back is going to feel in a few days packing all that gear around..
Hmm…I do love a challenge.
The stunning (and beautifully lit) photograph of the lovely Devin is of course, great Art. Almost “Pop Art” if that description could ever be thought to apply to glamour photos. Pop art photography reflects the popular, mass culture, and glamour photography in particular is designed to hook in the masses and feed them with low-cost, sexy, kitschy gimmicks. This witty image plays on an ironic appropriation of the system and its manipulated consumers, and clearly captures the artist’s sense of irony and contempt for the very system which supports him, whilst simultaneously mocking the masses who feed off it.
Or…it’s a funny picture of a very pretty girl with big boobies who loves to blow bubbles.
You choose.
No, no, wait! I have it!
It's a profound statement on the US Housing Market...yes, that's definitely it.
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