5 Reasons to Keep Your Equipment Simple feat. Documentary Photography Daniel Milnor

Documentary Photographer Daniel Milnor joins Marc Silber to discuss 5 reasons why you should keep your equipment simple.

👉Connect with Daniel Milnor:

#photography #camera #photographytips

[treharris]

Great comments. I was a film photographer (hobbyist) at age 19-23 or so. 57 now and just took up digital. I'm finding some of my best photos were with a Fuji XM-1 with 'crappy' kit lens 15-45mm at 15mm all the time. I started using different equipment and lenses in the last year and photographer friends have noticed the change in style, sometimes not for the better. So, I see the point about settling into one camera, one lens to help establish style. Changing equipment is fine if one is whittling the machines down to the point they 1) aren't a nuisance and 2) establish your personal view of the world.

[markcimon]

Great video, love it when Dan Milnor is the guest !
Common sense rules, I never carried a truckload on my back, light bag, 1 cam 1 lens, often enough it was the nifty 50 -1.2 manual focus or a 35mm.
Even way back when I was shooting P.J, keep it simple ad let the workflow do its thing... Freedom !
Now that I am retired from Active duty, I continue the 1 and 1 game plan... Love it.
Enjoy watching you guys, refreshing !

Cheers !

[stinkystealthysloth]

"My 1 camera and 1 lens... Well, my 2 main film cameras. Also my x-T2 with the speedmaster. My other x-T2 as well. Blurb also let me get the xt4. I also got a new sony camera.1 camera and 1 lens, that's all you need!" All jokes aside, love this Collab with Dan milnor, he's a living legend.

[lorgar]

Brilliant! 40mm is may focal length of choice, that's it!

[davidwoods]

The return of Spaceman Spiff! Always fun to see Dan.

[benswanepoel]

I learn a lot from Dan, I enjoy his quirky manner and refreshing brand of humility that, come to think about it, is not really humility at all  He taught me to get back to the essence of photography again, to strip away the clutter of gear and the distraction of too many options. Now, in almost every case, it’s just little ol me, my 5D, a 50, and my personal view of life, love and American homemade apple pie. However………(that was all just a set up) however……in my personal journey, I still find that there are those times when one lens just doesn’t do it, when I need to examine life from a few different perspectives simply to understand what I am seeing. Hell, sometimes I love nothing more than to load up my camara bag with as much gear as I can cram into it, drive my motorbike up some remote mountain trail to a far flung waterfall, and spend a day screwing around with every perspective, focal length, shutter speed, filter combination possible! If you were out to mug me and steal all my equipment, I wouldn’t even hear you coming, so absorbed and content would I be. So, yes I listen to Dan's advice and reluctantly admire his ability to look really great in strange glasses, in most situations. In others however, I trust my own instincts and thown in the 35mm as well, or the heaven forbid, the be damed! Thanks for the great content! keep it coming!

[MrCochise]

Such a great video. You guys bringing it again. Yeah I don't want a pack mule full of gear. Save your cash for Taco's and a beer. 🤣

[mcalkiew]

Daniel speaks like a cult leader telling the only truth. But I love to listen to him because it reminds me of what is most important in photography, teaches me to pay attention to details and why every detail matters. Thank you and I look forward for more.

[SebastianBevanPhotography]

Ooo sooo true, some great points in there Marc

[hugomejia]

Question ? What do you think about to use a cellphone camera in a project?my cellphone camera allows me to take photos shutter speed mode, could be use in a serious photo project? not for Instagram or Facebook nothing like that, I'm talking about for magazines or exhibition etc...

[rlysakowski]

Question to Dan - why being ex-Leica shooter, you’re on Xt2 with manual lens while there are better options for going manual on digital like Leica M? I have both and cannot understand why would you prefer Fuji with manual lens.

[markscott]

What is the 50mm on your xt2? Mitakon speedmaster f/0.95?

[davidssongs]

I love Daniel's stuff. One item he didn't mention on why you don't necessarily need excess equipment is that you set yourself up to get robbed. I shot a music festival over a weekend using a lot of good kit and on the last night, as I was heading home some guys came up on me and started shooting (guns). Luckily they missed and drove off but they had seen how much camera stuff I had. I got good photos on that shoot but probably could have done almost as well with one body, a camera mounted speed light and one or two lenses.

[gregoryrogalsky]

I respect your opinion and agree to disagree on almost everything you say.

[neilpiper]

I use a Nikon D40x with the Nikkor 18 70 f 3.5 f4.5 which I bought in 2008.
I use aperture priority.
I love the colours from the Sony CCD sensor.

[jorgemoro]

Mmmm. I’m watching this as I await delivery of my new GFX ultra wide.

[IanMcCausland]

The physical demands to being a great photographer should not be over looked!
Love Dan and his way of articulating the wisdom

[mwales]

When I shot Canon 6+ years ago I carried everything, every time I went out to shoot and wasted so much time and energy deciding what to use and most of the time I would miss the shot I wanted at that time.. Plus you just became a target for theft. Now I shoot Fujifilm and either carry just my X100V or X-Pro3 w/35 1.4 lens and I enjoy myself so much more while out shooting. Thanks Mark and Dan...

[johna]

The amount of hassle we have had carrying full kit. Strangely folk beside using phones for a similar purpose go unnoticed.. Sold everything now and usually found behind my trusty G11

[craigmeyer]

Timing. timing, timing! Dan sparked a memory of my, unfortunately long gone, favorite photographer, Galen Rowell. I brought my son to a two- day workshop with Galen about 30 years ago. As to the physical, no one was in better shape than he was. To gear, while a Nikon guy, he kept an early film EOS Rebel camera with a single, probably 35 or 50mm, lens as his daily running companion. His famous sunset behind the temple photo in, I think Nepal, was made only because he could run at altitude over a mile with light equipment to capture that composition at THE moment. He told, the story to make the very point you do. BTW, he also tells that he made that trip multiple times to get it right--no back screen then.

At the Workshop, he did a critique and one of my submissions was selected. It was a perfectly composed, exposed, focused, framed pair of ducks swimming on a lake shoreline in late afternoon light--perfect, too. But Galen couldn't figure out why it didn't work. Well, I neglected to mention that the lead duck was facing in the opposite direction of his travel. I missed the MOMENT. By then after 40 years of photography, trained into numbness, I submitted a "perfect" exposure that was a lousy photograph, because it missed the timing.

Reviewing my entire archive to organize it for the future viewers, I came across a small, stapled set of B&W 127 film format prints from my Kodak Dual Flex that I used for my 1950's "documentary" photography. Great seeing NY City through my 12-year-old eyes. FIRST photo, a man's BACK!!! passing through the Subway turnstile at the onset of my journey. Moral of the story: Learning is a lifelong journey. Pick the subject you like, so you can enjoy all the skills and perspective to be learned.

Sorry for the length, I've been a fan of you both, especially you Marc, for a long time.