Photography Truisms and Clichés

Some Useful, Some Not

You can find hundreds of adages about photography in books and on the web. Most have to do with the writer’s own feelings about photography — about the process of seeing, Examples:

Alfred Stieglitz: “In photography, there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.”

Robert Frank: “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”

Such statements provide insight into other photographers’ work and thought processes, but they really can’t be cross-examined.

There are a few, however, that advise on how to take pictures. These can be cross-examined. Here are seven.

The best camera is the one you have with you

This one drives me a bit crazy. I get what it’s trying to say, of course. Any camera is better than no camera at all.

Well, that’s not saying much, is it? And how does whatever you happen to have on hand also happen to be “best”? Is there some sort of wisdom here I don’t get? That certainly sets a low standard.

If this statement were true, Kodak would still own the market and we’d all be using Brownies. We need to think about best for what, best for where, best for when. To try to be prepared with the right camera for the situation.

Fortunately, these days the cameras we always have with us, our smartphones, are pretty…