Do you love your camera? Are you passionate about photography?
There is a breed of people, a special people, they speak a common language, a unique language, a language that defies color, race, and tribe. United by passion and an inexplicable bond, they are neither understood nor defined except by their own kind.
Their passion for wheels, especially the four kind knows no borders; it transcends seas, powers over oceans, throttles through swamps, roars in jungles, cruises on in sunrises, and knows no rest in sunsets. People call them Car enthusiasts.
There is another breed of people, friendly, caring, bold, spirited, adventurous,indomitable and indefatigable. Unlike car enthusiasts they love to hang out alone, rarely in groups. They too speak a common language, a language that transcends borders.
Just like car enthusiasts, they too have a passion, a different kind of passion, a passion for light. They have such an intense unquenchable love for light, you will always see them shooting like crazy every time the light is right; Their cameras are an extension of their existence.
This is probably where their similarities end.
I was musing, reflecting,conjuring ancient memories, memories of my first camera, a sturdy Nikon F5, a gift. At gunpoint, violently taken, unwillingly given into the hands of a new clueless owner almost at the expense of my own life.
35mm, 5 Zone - Autofocus Phase Detection, 3D Matrix Center - weighted with a manual ISO of 6-6400, another Nikon masterpiece in 2001, It captured excellent photos, breathless African sunset photos, heartwarming sunrises; an excellent yet underutilized companion for a budding hobbyist photographer.
My reverie is interrupted,a friend, a car enthusiast, a guy whose hands are always vacillating from greasy, to oily, to shiny, hardened by many hours spent, assembling, disassembling, fixing, testing, polishing, waxing, rubbing; sparing no expense to coax back ancient automobiles to life, calls.
An irresistible offer shelves and reshapes the writing of this article, an offer to test, pace and roar in one of his creations; 6 cylinders of throttle power, hidden under shiny silver chrome, polished and waxed, a 650 Mile round trip to the coastal city of Mombasa.
As we roar into the breaking dawn, my mind draws a parallel; car enthusiasts and Camera enthusiasts; A special breed of photographers, photographers who don’t just shoot photos, they live breathe, walk, talk cameras.
Photographers who polish, wax, assemble, disassemble change and interchange camera components, photographers who consciously stretch their camera’s limits, are not afraid to tinker and try, who constantly discover new ways of shooting photos with their camera.
These are true camera enthusiasts a special breed of people, uncelebrated, unrecognized, a people whose passion seats side by side with true car enthusiasts and yet who do not share the same status enjoyed by car enthusiasts.
Car enthusiasts have staked a royal claim; descendents of Henry Ford, Karl Benz, Gottlieb Daimler, Charles Duryea, Rudolf Diesel, and Kiichiro Toyoda they make no apologies, they are members of clubs and motor associations and will always be found flaunting their royal status in Meets, Auto Shows and Motorsports.
On the other hand true Camera enthusiasts are orphans, they neither have an ancestral claim on Nikon, Canon. Olympus, Pentax, Leica, Fuji or Panasonic nor do they work feverishly to bring back a George Eastman’s - Kodak Brownie camera from its grave.
Camera enthusiasts are a sensible lot, they know better - let the dead remain dead - why sweat to bring a”Heavy Tank” Canon “F-1,” back to life, when you can buy a perfect Canon EOS R mirrorless camera, why break your heart over a dead FD -series lens, spend sleepless nights wondering where to get an FD300mm f/2.8 S.S.C” lens.
Camera enthusiasts will go for 26-megapixel resolution, 6.5fps continuous shooting speed, with effective control layout, coupled with vari-angle touchscreen and an excellent live view autofocus any day of the week.
They may not hang out in a Grand national Roadster show, or a Concour d'Elegance drooling and crooning over copious sweat, shed tears, painful man hours, money and frustrations expended into paying homage to a dead hero; Camera enthusiast know better, they are technologically savvy, they embrace new technology, they live for now, they live for the moment.
Grab a mirrorless Nikon Z7 high tech 493-point hybrid phase/contrast with an AF that covers 90% of the image area, in built image stabilization, with a compact 24-70mm f/4 lenses, go out and shoot, shoot while its light, for light waits for no man.
As for the Nikon F-5, if it were still in my possession; why not let it gather dust on a collector’s shelf; umm...maybe not... why not donate it to budding talent - an unfortunate youth born on the the periphery of life without any design of their own - who may kill you for the camera anyway.
You never know, I may help birth new talent while saving lives. My simple act of love; a gifted camera - may introduce one lucky youth to a new passion, a passion for light; a love for the camera and not crime, a new to way to shoot, shoot images and not bullets.