Cameras Make Me Happy

Cameras make me happy. Humans make my head hurt.

I love this slogan that keeps appearing in online T-shirt ads. I love it because it says exactly how I feel. I love nothing more than taking my cameras and exploring new places. I love the challenge of creatively capturing a scene, whether a landscape or a wild animal. And it's amazing how looking at a photograph I took years ago brings back memories, not just of where the image was taken, but of exactly where.

I hate what much of humanity has become, and it does much more than make my head hurt. It upsets my stomach, and it hurts my soul. Our species has become greedy, cruel, hateful, self-centered, self-righteous and hostile. We have lost our humanity, our concern for others, and our compassion. Too many of us blindly follow political leaders despite their proven and multiple lies. Too many of us no longer believe in science, in modern medicine and in the mass media. 

If this sounds like a very pessimistic and negative view of our world, that's because it is. I also believe it is a very realistic picture of the world in 2019. It saddens me to see what the world in which I have lived has become.

But back to my cameras. I have four digital cameras: two DSLRs, one point-and-shoot, and one bridge camera. Sometimes it isn't practical or feasible to carry both DSLRs and lenses with me. When I'm hiking, for example, the bridge camera serves me well. So I also like this expression on a T-shirt: "Yes, I really do need all these cameras."

I also have an assortment of lenses, plus all the accessories (spare batteries and memory cards, filters, lens cleaning kits, etc.). This gear can be pretty heavy to carry in a backpack through big airports, so I ordered a camera bag with wheels that should hold all my gear. It also has straps so it can be used as a backpack, but I will most likely use it as a wheeled bag. 

I don't chase the latest and greatest camera bodies and lenses. I have what I need, and I am happy with what I have. I must confess, however, that if I could easily handle a 500mm or 600mm lens, I would buy one. But my 100-400mm lens is about all I can easily hold for long periods of time, especially after breaking my wrist 3 years ago.

I still have a lot to learn about photography, but I am learning and improving all the time. Right now I'm working on learning more about Lightroom CC and how to edit RAW images. I'm now shooting in both RAW and JPEG, but eventually I'll shoot only in RAW.

You can see some of my best images at www.annsullivan.zenfolio.com