It’s not the equipment that makes the photo.

I know this is an old saw in photography circles, but new photographers are minted every day and it bears repeating. You don’t need the super-expensive, high-end equipment to make great photos. While it certainly makes things easier, it is by no means necessary. Even the low end of modern photo equipment is sufficient to create truly amazing photos.

If it’s such an old saw, why repeat it? Well, I was inspired by a comment I got on a photo in my Flickr pool:

The comment from Flickr user “VanLeslie” reads:

Everyone of these pictures in this series is beautiful. My 10 D doesn’t take pictures like this!

And my response:

I assure you that your 10D is perfectly capable of doing so. This was shot with a 30D, firing an ST-E2 to trigger a 430 EX flash which was hand held by my wife (if she wasn’t in the photo) or one of my other relatives. There’s nothing special about the 30D, other than its ability to fire a flash, that made this set.

And it’s true. While VanLeslie’s 10D is a bit older than my 30D (and my 30D is getting a little long in the tooth nowadays), there’s no reason that she couldn’t have shot this photo. The only “special” bit of equipment is the ST-E2 remote flash trigger, and that can be replaced by a cheap radio trigger for almost nothing.

Of course, it’s vitally important that you get your flash off of your camera somehow… But that has been extensively covered elsewhere.