Yes, that's right. Not a camera, but your eyes. And the other major, indispensable piece of equipment you need is your brain. That's because a good photo is a thoughtful photo. You see it first in your head, and then use your eyes to control the camera to do your best to capture the scene you first imagined. Ansel Adams, the famous landscape photographer, said that his photographs were an attempt to recreate the impression he had felt when looking at a scene, and not meant to document the specific details. So this leads us to Better Photography Rule No. 1:
Rule 1: See it before you take it.
My wife takes really good photos...with her phone. But it wasn't always so. Early on, she just used it like an Instamatic to get snaps of places or children or other family members. You know, the normal things. And the photos were often tilted at an angle, people randomly placed in the frame, etc. She was always wondering why my shots of the same things were better than hers. So I told her: pay attention. Think about what you are doing, and set it up in an interesting way when you take the shot. She is not a techie by any means, but she got really good at taking photos with her phone. And it was all because she slowed down just a little and put more thought into the shots. She just learned to pay attention, which is Good Photography Rule No. 2:
Rule 2: Pay attention.
Most people don't realize that what they actually see through a camera viewfinder is not what they think they see. That's because we instinctively interpret the scene when we view it. It goes back to that Ansel Adams quote above. We are seeing our interpretation, not the reality. So when you take a photo, stop and pay attention to what is actually in the viewfinder and think about how you can best set up the image. Imagine that you are trying to communicate the situation to somebody who was not there with you.
Next time I'll write a little about actual equipment.
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