Don’t spend too much money on Photo Gear!

As photographers, there is a tendency (more so for guys than for girls) to buy the latest, newest, biggest (or smallest), highest megapixel, most bad-ass photo equipment there is.  For the business, we say.   But if we are really honest with ourselves, is it really for the business or is it just to satisfy our techno-lust?

Once you have your basic equipment (SLR body, a couple of lenses, batteries, Compact Flash cards, tripod and flash) and a backup set, all the other stuff is really just gravy and sometimes unnecessary. 

Don’t spend all the money that you earn on photo equipment.  If you did, that would mean you are just working so that you can buy and you are a slave to your gear.

Don’t BORROW money (or use a credit card) just to buy gear that you cannot afford with the mindset that this little baby will get you a lot of clients so it will be worth it.  It doesn’t really work that way.

Most clients don’t really care much about equipment and cameras and such. 

Know thy Gear

Here’s a great but boring-sounding tip:  Read your camera’s manual!  Read it from cover to cover.  Have your camera in hand so that you can see what the manual is talking about and try it all out as you read it.

It might sound obvious but honestly, how many of you have read through your camera’s manual?  Or your flash’s manual?  (Oops, come to think of it, I haven’t read my flash’s manual… so that’s why up to now I don’t know what GN means and what makes it different from TTL.  I have no idea where that manual is.)

It is pretty boring because you know a lot of the features of your camera already (presumably).  But what about the other parts of your camera that you never use?

Read your manual!  It’s like eating veggies: it’s good for you.