No Futz Zone

Photography has been a hobby as long as I can remember. 

With time, cameras got better and so did some of the photos. 

My time would be spent wrangling with the camera settings to get it to obey me. Sometimes I almost got it right. Being of limited talent and all that. 

Taming the Manual mode felt like being creative. Setting up the buttons and dials to be just so. Ooh those custom settings and dials work so well. 

More time thinking about gear and acquiring more gear and finding faults with said gear. 

Bob Kramer, a master knife maker and Hugh Brownstone, a street photographer (from who i borrow the title) pulled down the veils on this nonsense for me. 

A knife is a tool - the goal is good food. 

A camera should be invisible - what is important is to capture a moment and realize your vision for it. 

A tool is something i use to achieve an end goal. 

The tool, in itself can be interesting and beautiful and indulgent. Even be a work of art. Like a Hasselblad.

We can argue Android vs Apple till the cows come home and die and become beef to be consumed. 

But that is not the goal. Enabling human endeavor is.

Tools should be invisible and weightless in the pursuit of that goal.

How well can the tool get out of the way - that is the rubric by which any tool should be judged.