So I've been crunching the numbers here and I figured out what's holding you back as a photographer. It's your lack of owning a Leica. Wait, you already own a Leica? What's up? My name is Chris Tayas. I'm a photographer and videoographer based on Ontario, Canada. I primarily shoot portraits. I do also do some like weddings and event work. I do some brand stuff for different companies and commercial, a bunch of stuff just like you probably do. But my main thing is portraits. And you know what? To be honest, I really do want a Leica. I want a Leica and a Hasselblad and a Phase One. I want a GFX 50R or the GFX 100S, Mark 2 that might be coming out soon. I want them all. I also want like 100 different lenses and a lot of different gear like that that fits into that sort of like super high megapixel medium format world or or the like super intentional beautiful stylistic like a world stuff like that. I want it all. And the thing is if I had some of those cameras, I would produce better looking images. I would. That's true. To me, because I like the look of those cameras, there is a like a look. There is a medium format look and I like that look for portrait work. I think it's really beautiful. Is it something that would make me a better photographer? Probably not maybe. And this is a way to think where people are like, gear doesn't make you a better photographer. It actually does because it opens up your mind to new possibilities and ideas. But it wouldn't necessarily mean I'm taking better photos. It wouldn't necessarily book me more work. It wouldn't, nobody would give a shit. Like, okay. Outside of like high, high-end agencies who might have specific cameras, they want people to use. Nobody except for a bunch of nerds on YouTube give a shit what camera I shoot on or you shoot on. Your clients don't care. You know that. That's an obvious thing. So if that's the case, we really have to ask ourselves, like, what is the point of wanting all of these things other than just wanting them because they're fucking cool. And they are like the role's voice of our, you know, of our chosen industry, I guess. So it wouldn't book me more work and I wouldn't be a better photographer. Why do I want a like us to? Why do I still want to hassle black or a phase one or whatever? Why do I want these cameras? Just because it wouldn't make me a better photographer, just because it wouldn't book me more work. Doesn't mean that I don't still want them. They do. Straight up. But I'm not getting like at any time soon or a Hasse or a phase one or even like the GFX50R. Like, I'm looking at them. I think they're cool. They end up in shopping carts randomly online sometimes late at night, but they don't buy them. So that's not happening anytime soon. And it occurred to me that really the best thing I can do and maybe the best thing you can do as well is just shoot as though you are shooting with one of those cameras. If I had one of those big, crazy, beautiful cameras, how would I shoot photography? I would shoot slowly. I would take my time. I would make sure that I'm getting the photograph I want to get. I would be very intentional with my photos. I would shoot them as if they were like the last photo I was going to take. They would have meaning. They would have substance. Not all the time, but I think more often than not, I would be really slowly and intentionally crafting my images. I would have an extreme focus on composition and lighting, especially with my portrait work, knowing that there was so much latitude and so much beautiful rendition of colors and everything that I could do with these cameras. I would be very intentional about my composition lighting on every shot. I think when we're talking about using a medium format camera, we're getting so much more detail. To me, detail doesn't really matter when it comes to portraits unless it's helping you to emphasize a given emotion or a given look or feel to the photo. I don't just need more detail and more megapixels. That's not doing anything for me. However, if I was able to emphasize an emotion through that format of shooting, then I think that actually is really helpful. I would really emphasize the emotion of my subjects. Finally, I'd probably take less frames. I wouldn't shoot as much as I do. We all do this where maybe we take four or five of the exact same photo because it's just so easy with digital. I would probably do that a lot less. I imagine you would too, but as I'm saying all this, what I'm realizing and what you're probably hearing is that isn't that kind of just a good way to photograph in general, especially with portraits? Everything I just said, isn't that just best practice? I would say most of those things are things I could carry into my work right now and it would make me instantly better. Now, when I'm shooting events or weddings and stuff, there's not as much time for me to be super ultra intentional and slow and methodical and all that stuff because a lot of times it's more of a documentary space where you're just capturing what's happening and you can't make as many changes to the overall composition and lighting as maybe you want to. I get that. However, when I'm shooting portraits, I can absolutely do that. In fact, I can take pretty much all of the things I just said into my portrait work right now. I don't have to have a like or a hassle-blatter phase one or whatever. I can take all those into what I do and I can make better images. So, yeah, having a like a like make me better, but pretending I have a like a or pretending I have a medium format camera or whatever, whatever your version of that is, just pretend. Maybe that'll actually make you better as well. So, I'm going to think about it right. So, how would I actually accomplish this? If I wanted to pretend I had these cameras and I wanted to like kind of trick myself into doing that to become a better photographer, how would I do that? What would I do? I think there's a few ways you could go about this, but probably what I would do right away is I would switch to manual focus. Why? Not all of those cameras are manual focus, but most of them kind of have garbage focus anyways. But going into manual focus does help you slow down. It does help you be more methodical. I use manual focus a fair bit already, but it's something I would definitely embrace more and more. You know, I've often shot on camera systems that just don't have as reliable auto focus, whether that's like Fuji or Panasonic or whatever. And so, I've kind of had to rely on that a bit. And I do think that's maybe a better photographer, but I also think that it's helped me slow down a little bit. It does mean I miss some shots sometimes. I did a wedding a little while ago with a buddy of mine and I was like super frustrated because I jumped on to the XT4 for a little bit after shooting on the XH2S for a while. And I kind of just forgot how much better the auto focus did really get. And I was shooting as though I was using that newer system, forgetting how you have to shoot with the older Fuji bodies. So all that to say manual focus is probably something I would emphasize. I would also probably look into more like vintage lenses and stuff like that so I can get just more of that sort of stylistic look that you can get at a medium format cameras. I think that can be accomplished with lens choices as well. So that would be kind of the technical side of things. And the last little biscuit here is I would probably talk to my to my subject. The person who's sitting for me to do the portraits, I would probably say to them like, hey, I don't know if you've sat before. Maybe they sat for me before or maybe they've sat for other photographers. I would say to them like, hey, we're going to try something a little different here. We're going to move a little more slowly, a little more intentionally. I'm going to do a little more directing. You know, I'm still not a fan of like hyper focused directing, like moving every little inch and everything like that. But I would probably just say like we're going to take less frames. We're going to really work with our lighting and that kind of thing in our composition. And we're going to really try and bring out the emotions that we're working for here. And that might just be different from how they've gotten their photograph taken in the past where there's like a lot of like, you know, quick action happening, lots of frames and all that kind of stuff. I would just slow it all down and I would probably try and limit myself to a certain amount of frames. I would say like, okay, if I was shooting on film and I was doing a portrait session for somebody on film, which is something I need to start doing more of. But if I was doing that and let's say I was charging $500 for the session, I know that every frame I take is eating into that amount by, you know, maybe with processing and buying the film and everything, maybe it's a dollar of frame or something like that. So I'm not going to take 300 frames and be left with like $200 left before editing in terms of like what I'm making minus my taxes and all that stuff. It doesn't make sense. I'd be really intentional. I'd probably say like, okay, we're going to shoot maybe one roll, maybe, you know, half a roll. And that's how I would look at it. I would just be more intentional. So all that to say, pick your dream camera, pretend you haven't and shoot as though you do and see what happens. Thank you so much for watching. Appreciate it. If you can do me a favor, just like, subscribe, comment, all that stuff. It really does help. I'm pushing towards getting to a point where I can do this a little more full time and it would be really helpful just to have you along for the ride. So thank you so much. Appreciate you and have a great day. Peace.