the Peter Cox treatise

[wmchauncey]

I take a minor exception to the Peter Cox article when he stated that a better camera doesn't make you a better photographer...it did do so, with me.
Spending an obscene amount of money for the best gear, when I was but a neophyte, instilled in me a mindset that said "now that you went and bought it, ya damn well better learn how to use it".
Unfortunately, for me, "using it" is merely the ability to use my developed left brain to take a properly ETTR image in various scenarios, be they macro/BIF/landscapes/whatever.

Aside from that, I found his article, and those of Alain Briot, to be insightful for those of us who are in need of right brain development.     

[lfeagan]

As an engineer, I also suffer from being highly left-brained. My solution is to bring along right-brained friends that are interested in photography but that lack the technical expertise to pull off their vision. This collaborative process of image creation can be fun and challenging.

Returning to the article a bit more, wisely choosing the equipment used to create an image can impact how difficult it is to achieve a particular image. If I tried to shoot sports exclusively using a fish-eye lens or portraits only using a 400mm lens, well, you get the the point. The cost of the equipment does not determine what is "better". When shooting static subjects, I feel that using manual focus lenses along with a zoomed in live view makes it easier for me to create the image I want. When shooting sports, trying to apply the same techniques as "better" would lead to some laughably bad results.

[wolfnowl]

I certainly wouldn't profess to speak for Peter, but when people ask me, "Is it the camera or the photographer?" my answer is always, "Both".  A Holga, a cell phone and a MF camera can all be used to make excellent images, but they'll be very different.  At the same time, I remember walking into a camera store I used to visit back in 1982 just as a woman was walking out.  The owner of the store told me she'd just dropped $700 on camera equipment because she was going off on vacation and 'wanted to take good pictures'.  My reply was, "She is going to be SO disappointed."  Maybe she wasn't, but I believe the point of Peter's article is that knowing how to use what you have and learning how to see as a photographer trumps unknown equipment of any price range.

Mike.