Light .. lighter .. lightest

When taking pictures during a day, either working on a story or just visiting an unknown place, I have a tendency to take less and less pictures.

Creating photographs takes a lot of energy, but so does moving through an unknown place, or city, or environment, interacting with your surroundings, getting fed in time, moving from one location to another, you get the idea.
In other words, I get tired. Very tired, and often much too tired to continue taking meaningful pictures. I just can't be bothered anymore.

Not a big deal when I take pictures for my own fun, but it becomes a problem when I have to deliver something at the end. I will force myself to keep working, but only to find out that the quality is not really there anymore. I am just too tired.


The above picture was taken with the beautiful Leica Elmarit 2.8/135mm. Not too bad a picture, not all that special either. And the only picture I took with that lens during the entire day.

I carried over 700 gr. of lens for one shot that I could easily live without. I agree that you never know on forehand, but we also know that the long and short focal lengths don't see that much usage anyway compared to the more mundane focal lengths.

So next time, I must be clever and leave the beast at home. Not being able to take one very specific picture against the pictures that I can take at the end of the day, that's an easy choice for me.

My advise, don't be afraid that you might miss an opportunity because you did not bring a specific lens or camera. You WILL miss that opportunity.
But you miss a 1000 opportunities anyway just because you are looking to the left when the opportunity takes place on the right. And because you can't capture everything. By definition.
Focus on what you can do with the stuff you did take with you, get the best out of that, and keep minimising that set. Less is more.