Year of One Camera?
This was originally published in my Prime Lenses Newsletter. You can sign-up for a weekly update to your inbox here.
It’s the 8th of January and everywhere I look everyone’s still talking 2025 plans. I noticed the other day that friend of the show Ali has decided to spend 2025 with an emphasis on process rather than gear. For someone who started her YouTube channel on the basis of a different camera every couple of weeks that’s a big change. After her video came out I started to notice lots of posts referencing her and other accounts I follow that were saying they’re going to do the same thing. Meanwhile, also on YouTube, I noticed that James Popsys was reflecting on his year spent with a more stable setup than he was known for prior to 2024 and listener Shaun Edwards got in touch to say that as a result of listening to me prattle on about my beloved Leica M for nearly a year he has taken the plunge on an M240 setup with a Voigtlander 35 and is planning to make this his main camera and lens, wait for it … that’s right, for the year.
Shaun’s new camera
Perhaps 2025 could be the year that people’s personal version of the one camera rule goes mainstream?
Thing is, I think that rules like this, yes this is another newsletter about rules, are created by us because we seek greater meaning. We don’t like to think that maybe it’s as simple as you find something you like, you snap the shutter, and that’s it. We love a good back story, something our family are thinking about a lot as we just finished watching the new Star Wars Skeleton Crew series and it leaves things on a proper cliffhanger with many unanswered questions about the origin of one character in particular.
Creatively, it feels good to say, “I took this because my Grandpa always liked it here”, or “I’m working on a larger body of work about these trees”. Something that feels substantial, something that will validate it in other people’s eyes, protect us from criticism perhaps, create a tiny shield. Ali’s a really deep thinker about art and process, I wonder if that’s what she’s doing. Focusing on the process. Letting herself enjoy the work, enjoy the act of sharing with a group of people, not an audience. YouTube makes everything an audience doesn’t it? Or a community. What if we were just humans, milling about? I’m starting to sound like the philosophy I’ve been reading and only partially understand.
I’ll continue to live a one camera rule in 2025 which feels kind of no new gear adjacent, with the possible exception of borrowing another camera so I have two bodies when I shoot a wedding in September. I’ve only shot a wedding once before so any tips are welcome :)
If you’re entering the new year feeling unsure about yourself or part of your creative practice I’d suggest you read these two articles by another friend of the show, Daniel Milnor. The first is about experience what we might make if only we got out of our own way. I especially like this closing of the second one :) Goggles on, everyone! Adventure is out there.