The current photographic community has two basic philosophies that are best personified by a couple of pop culture character heroes: “Batman” and “MacGyver”. Neither approach is inherently better but do carry with them their own sets of pros and cons. Please keep in mind that these characters simply represent the ideal polar extremes of a spectrum; most photographers will likely relate at a bit to both but more so to one than the other. It really doesn’t matter which hero you “like” more or if you like either one at all, they both have something to teach us about what it means to be a photographer.

Think about both characters for just a moment. Batman would make an awesome photographer. Batman wears all black, has an awesome computer with equally awesome screens, has a great understanding of gobos (bat signal), and has a high-tech fancy gadget for everything. MacGyver would make an equally great photographer even though he’s the complete opposite of that. MacGyver always gets the job done by improvising and working with his surroundings; it isn’t always “pretty and neat” but so long as he has his trusty pocket knife (sub a camera in our case) he got spectacular results. Read More→