"I cannot believe you are buying another camera."

My wife has to be one of the most patient people I know. Ever since I first fell in love with photography, I was in a whirlwind of buying lenses. Just a few months ago I had told her my camera equipment was complete. But now I realize that I didn't really need all of them. I just sold one of my L-series lenses to purchase another film camera.

Many people get into the habit of trying to have a lens for every focal length. Or getting the latest and greatest DSLR body. This can be a trap. This changes your mentality to focusing on what equipment you would use to make a "good" picture rather than focusing on making an image that actually has meaning.

Just look around. You will find images that are technically perfect. They have great composition, color, lighting and DOF, but they make you feel absolutely nothing inside. Other people will swear by this train of thought. I followed it once. But I have realized recently that an image does not need to be perfect. In fact sometimes if an image is "perfect" it could take away from the message you are trying to convey. Sometimes grain, blur, clipped people, flare and "bad" composition can add more to an image.