What is your standard reply when...

met

Do you ever say anything when you get this...

"Wow, that's a great picture - you must have an awesome camera."

One of my friends told me that one time he replied, "Yes. Whenever I have a good meal I always tell the chef that he must have a nice set of pans."

:rofl

Is it a pet peeve of yours or do you just kind of laugh to yourself?

ian408

I say "thank you" and move on. It's a compliment and compliments are always nice to receive.

Sam

I am with Ian here. I just say something "yes it is, thank you!

They are giving you a compliment, accept it.

Sam

cab.in.boston

Just like in my new favorite cartoon...

kdog

ian408 wrote: »

I say "thank you" and move on. It's a compliment and compliments are always nice to receive.

Sam wrote: »

I am with Ian here. I just say something "yes it is, thank you!

They are giving you a compliment, accept it.

Not me. I say, "no, actually it's nothing special".

rsquared

I got into a little (friendly) back and forth with a friend recently about this. She was insisting it was mostly the camera, so I grabbed the older 5MP P&S sitting nearby and grabbed a quick shot that impressed her enough to change her mind...

sittingstill

For the most part I think folks are just phrasing a compliment poorly, so I try to take it in the spirit in which it was intended. I shoot primarily sports, so in my case, they're usually right--I do have an awesome camera, and it certainly HELPS me shoot better than they can. But I'd rather respond along the lines of "Yes, I do--and I work hard using it, too!"

(Actually, it's harder for me to figure out what to say when people see me at work and say "That's quite a camera!" "... Yes, it is!" doesn't seem to do it.)

jogle

I usually say "Yeah it does the trick, can I take a couple of shots of you?" if you want you can then hand them a card, turn it into a chance to make a friend/client and practice your portraits

SamirD

I usually tell them how the Nikon/Canon/Sony hanging around their neck is a 10x more expensive camera than what I have, and it's not my camera that's making the great shot.

Quzol1

I usually say "Its just a tool, the nail's no good with out the hammer."

WillCAD

My mantra for several years now has been:

"The camera doesn't take pictures. I take pictures. The camera is just a tool I use while I'm doing it."

That usually makes people step back and think for a few seconds, while I make the same boring, tired old analogy:

"Think of it this way - if Tiger Woods loaned me his best set of clubs, the one he used to win all those games and make all those amazing shots, I'd still shoot a 150.

On the FRONT nine.

Because the clubs are meaningless unless you have the talent to swing them the right way."

Analogies are fun, and they usually help people to understand.

Of course, I always leave out the fact that a more capable camera does help - in a very, very small way - to compensate for my own lack of photographic skill and talent. After all, the camera has a meter built in, but I don't. The camera has auto-focus, but I have a lot of trouble manually focusing. And my zoom lens can usually see distant stuff with more clarity than my own eyes. None of that helps my crappy composition, though, so I guess it really is the user that makes the difference, not the tools.

BradfordBenn

I usually say thank you and take it as a compliment. If people start really asking and going over the top, then I explain the camera is just a tool and that with practice any camera can take a great picture. You just have to get used to seeing things that most people miss.

kd2

I say, "Yes, my camera is pretty nice and I'm not so bad myself."

DsrtVW

Then I guess Monet had some really bitchin paint brushes.

or
Yes it is nice but if I did not have a good eye it would be worthless.

Usually it is Thank you

michswiss

WillCAD wrote: »

"Think of it this way - if Tiger Woods loaned me his best set of clubs, the one he used to win all those games and make all those amazing shots, I'd still shoot a 150.

I played off a 5 hdcp until my most recent move a couple of years ago. A lot of people that don't play, or don't play well would ask what clubs I use. I'd normally try to answer "the right ones for me*." Of course, not having easy access to golf has freed up time for photography.

But yeah, the thing that grates with the question is the implied assumption that the camera itself took the picture and that I'm just an organic bi-pod with a mounting system more flexible than a ballhead.

* I would also normally go ahead and answer to the types of irons and woods I have in the bag (TaylorMade RAC-II and Titiest respectively).

ian408

The kind of camera can (or golf clubs) can have a marked impact on one's ability to shoot or play the game.

Let's say you're shooting with a P&S and you buy a Rebel. Your panning will improve just by the fact there's not as much shutter lag. Just as if you play golf with a $100 bag of Play-it-Again-Sports clubs and move to a set of Ping's, your game will improve just because the clubs are better design and can compensate (at least partially) for your crappy swing. Obviously, if you start with better gear and buy mo-betta stuff, the change won't be as dramatic.

This is not to say a "pro" anything makes you a pro and there is absolutely no substitute for learning both your craft and the equipment you've chosen to ply it with.

SamirD

ian408 wrote: »

Let's say you're shooting with a P&S and you buy a Rebel. Your panning will improve just by the fact there's not as much shutter lag.

The only way I can agree with this is if the composition of the shot was the same. I shoot with high-end p&s and my panning shots come out better than a photographer that comes out with a 7d and the 70-200 2.8. My keeper rate would improve a lot with her equipment in my hands. I don't think her best shots with my p&s would be much different than what she currently gets. A typical case of the shot is not in the camera, but in the photographer.

ian408

SamirD wrote: »

The only way I can agree with this is if the composition of the shot was the same.

Doesn't matter whether the composition of the shot is the same or not. If I can push the button and make a better picture with a better camera, I've won. If I can't anticipate the moment the shutter (with a P&S) will fire and miss the shot, I lose. it really is that simple.

If a better camera gives you a shot you could not have otherwise gotten, then by definition you have become better.

Does this make the buyer's shots better in comparison to other shooters? Nope. All it does is make the buyer's shots better in comparison to what they were able to shoot before. And it's not to say that someone else couldn't make a better picture with the buyer's old camera.

WillCAD

ian408 wrote: »

If a better camera gives you a shot you could not have otherwise gotten, then by definition you have become better.

I don't really agree with that at all. Sure, you have better tools - but having better tools does not make you a better photographer/golfer/artist/whatever.

WillCAD wrote: »

Because the clubs are meaningless unless you have the talent to swing them the right way.

Having the best tools in the business may temporarily allow you to do a better job, but having those tools does not improve YOU one iota. Take the tools away, and you're still you, with the same skills and talents you had before. And your output will return to the previous level.

Kahn Noonien Singh wrote:

Improve a mechanical device and you may double productivity. But improve man, you gain a thousandfold.

It's always nice to have better tools. But thinking that YOU get better by simply buying better tools is shortsighted and naive. If you really want to improve yourself, you have to improve yourself, not your toolbox.

gecko0

What I say: "Thanks...it's a great camera."

What I think: "Good luck if you buy one and think that's all it takes."

SamirD

gecko0 wrote: »

What I think: "Good luck if you buy one and think that's all it takes."

I think that too!

I spend a few hours today with a friend that has a very creative eye for framing and capturing an image, but I'm pretty much taught her how to really use her d60...and my hands hate Nikons.

indiegirl

I sit back and smoke an imaginary cigarette. Then I blow imaginary smoke into the air while I contemplate my good fortune. I make pretty things. I understand the depth of an image, I see the beauty of light. I capture time and I evoke emotion. I give people memory- what a wonderful thing. Who cares if they think it's the camera. What we offer is magic. You can't get that from the camera, it comes from somewhere else.