Photojournalist | Talent is Not Enough

© 2011 Wazari Wazir | The Photojournalist at Work | Parliament & Indoor Stadium

Some photographer will say that gear doesn’t matter, it’s the person behind the camera that matters. To the certain extend, we can say that but we must be realistic when using those words. Photographers are not create equal, unless you shoot for fun, just for a hobby, a weekend photographers, your gear might not be so important because your life does not depend on photography, but for those who make a living through photography, gear does matters, in this post I will write about Photojournalist.

As a photojournalist we are required to cover many things, there are photographers that are specialize in sports and there are photojournalist that are specialize in war photography but basically most Photojournalist have to cover many things, from boring political meetings to maybe nature photography or wedding photography when the subject is “Public Figure”. In order to cover this things we need the right gear and having the right talent alone is not enough if you are not equipped with the right set of equipment. Off-course even without the best or the right equipment you still will get the job done but if your friends have a better equipment than you, then definitely your friends have an advantage.

Let’s talk about sports photography especially indoor sports photography. As you know photographers are prohibited to use flash during any sports event except during prize giving ceremony, we don’t want to disrupted the games with our flash, so no flash photography during sports event. In order to get a great shot during indoor sports photography we need to have a camera that have High ISO sensitivity and it will be great if the “noise” is low even at High ISO. If your camera are limited to a certain ISO, let’s say you camera ISO can only be push up to ISO 1600 while your friends sitting next to you have a camera with a capability of reaching ISO 6400 or more like ISO 51,200 (Latest Canon EOS – 1 DX), you will know which one will get the best picture.

If you have 70-300mm f/4-5.6 and your friend from different news agency have 300 or 400mm f/2.8 lens, then you know that your friend have more advantage than you. We all know that having fast aperture like f/2.8 will make it easy for the camera to focus because there is more light coming through the lens compared to the lens with f/4 and and f/5.6 lens. For those of you who are familiar with indoor sport event knows that the light are very dim hence having fast lens is a must in order for the photographers to work efficiently. Off-course if you have f4-5.6 lens, you can push the ISO but then you will have more noise and we all know that having a great picture with low noise is better than having the same great moment but with lot’s of noise. Undeniably you will be able to get the same moment as your friends if you seat next right to him but noise free photograph will always look better, that’s why camera manufacture nowadays try to produce a camera with Super High ISO with less noise.

Some event or functions can only be covered from a distance, like a official welcoming ceremony of a President at Parliament Square (2nd Photograph), we the photojournalist are prohibited to go near to the guard of honour, in order to get the best shot, where we can see the President face clearly, we must have a telephoto lens, normally the best telephoto lens is from 300mm to 400mm, this will give you a tight shot of the President and the guard of honour, but then if you have two set of camera equipment, you can se one camera to get an establish shot where you want to show the whole area and then switch back to your telephoto lens to get a tight shot but if you only have one set of camera equipment, the you will have to concentrate on getting the tight shot. Having equipped  with only 50mm lens will never get the job done even though you have the talent.

I can write a long post about this topics, but basically if our life depend on photography, we need the right set of camera equipment in order for us to do our job effectively. I’m talking about the “Needs” rather than “Wants”. A need is something we must have in order to survive and want is something someone would like to have. We need the right equipment in order for us to “Survive” while some hobbyist “wants” to have professional camera equipment for personal satisfaction.

Sometimes talent alone is not enough, you need the right gear and not to forget, the “Black Suit”…

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