(Sunday, August 16th, 2014)

Last weekend, I had the chance to break away from Gainesville to go back home to south Florida before school starts for a couple of days. Before I left to go back up, my friend Casper and I decided to have one last adventure before we completely fade away into the dark abyss known as college busy work, org responsibilities, and extracurricular activities.

As you can already see, that adventure took us into the busy streets of Miami!

[Disclaimers—plus a little bit of a spiel]

I’ve never been one of those photographers that carry around their camera around everywhere like its an extension of their body. Never has been. It usually has to be some kind of planned arrangement with me i.e. graduation photos, chapter photos, photo-shoots, etc.

But I would like to change that. Bring it on trips, at least. Usually, I just rely on my phone to take a couple of photos to post on Instagram, just so I can bookmark that I was there. (and it does the work—thanks to a couple of apps I use for photo editing.) But now that I have this blog, it has definitely become a huge push for me to take photography more seriously…. and not put it on the back burner so much.

That’s why you can tell that I didn’t take that many pictures from the beginning of this lil adventure. I didn’t start clicking away until later.

Not until, we came across this amazing smoothie place (that I’ll show you guys below) that had the most perfect modern interior design. I am a complete sucker for places like that.

Oh, and not only that but I had the chance to ditch my 50mm f/1.8 lens for the day to test drive Casper’s 35mm f/1.4. And boy, was it a beau. Don’t get me wrong, I love my 50mm. It’s my bae. I use it for all my photo-shoots. For such a cheap lens (pricing at around $100), it does the work much better than some of the more expensive canon lenses out there. The f/1.8 aperture allows for great lighting and nifty bokehs. But this 35mm f/1.4 was amazing. I should have kept it… (kidding) I’m pretty sure you guys will be able to tell from the photos below which is taken with my 50mm and which is taken with the 35mm, the difference in the photos is definitely visible. For example, the images taken with the 35mm is a lot more sharper.

However. Please don’t get into the comfortable notion that it’s all about the camera and lenses.

The mathematical equation for a great photo is not simply: expensive camera + expensive lens = amazingness. I mean it helps, but there is more to it…

I like to think of photographers as superheroes. (Hey, check out spiderman….)

What makes a superhero? Is it the cape he/she wears? Or is it the power that they encompassed?

Anybody can wear a cape and call themselves Superman. But are they really? No, they’re not. I know it, you know it. Superman can’t just wear a big S on his chest and be superman. He was Superman because he had super strength. Just like a photographer’s skill in photography is their superpower, and a doctor’s precision and knowledge of medicine is their superpower.

Skill in seeing the beauty in things that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. (in people, places, objects, etc.) Skill in placement and execution. Skill in usage of equipment. Skill in editing. The equipment we have is an accessory, just like Superman’s cape. It identifies us as photographers but it doesn’t make us one. To put simply, just because you have a nice camera and equipments… it does not make you a photographer. You can look like one, but that is all there is to it.

But enough of that, lets move on into the lively city that is Miami….

Share this Story