The argument for or against one or the other. Full frame or crop sensor. It’s like Canon vs. Nikon. Or Apple vs. PC. Or even digital vs. film. It just doesn’t make sense to me. Ok, I get the digital vs. film. It’s digital.

Each has it’s merits and each has it’s problems. Personally, I like the crop sensor. Why? Because I like the extra “reach” that the 1.5 crop factor on the Nikon D300 gives me. I like the way a 70-200mm lens acts like a 105-300. I like the way that a 1:1 macro 105mm lens becomes more than 1:1. (At least I think it does.) And I think that the ability to use a Sigma 10-20mm wide angle lens that is designed for a crop factor sensor is nice. And when a lens made for a full frame sensor is used on a crop factor sensor, the image quality goes up because the smaller sensor is in the “sweet spot” of the lens.

Ok, there are probably some problems. A crop factor sensor can’t go as wide as a full frame sensor and it probably is more susceptible to digital noise because of the smaller pixel size. Obviously, a wide angle lens isn’t as wide as wide as it is on a full frame camera. I don’t mind that. I don’t use wide angle very much and would rather get the advantage of the long reach at the other end. And of course the crop sensor lacks the “cool” factor that owning a new full frame camera has.

While I like and want a crop frame senor in my camera, I understand the advantages of the full frame; less noise, wide angle lenses are wide angle, and the newest equipment factor kicks in. But I LOVE and WANT my crop factor sensor.

There is a reason, need, and place for both. I am tired of hearing about one being better than the other. If the system you have works for you, USE IT!!

Photography is like model building, slow motion video, and maps. It allows people to view the world in a way that they can’t in real life. To be able to pick up a model of a cell or the space shuttle is something that we can’t do normally. To watch a balloon burst in slow motion and see the latex tear while holding it’s shape can’t be done with the naked eye. And to be able to see the relationship between the location of your home and place of work with all of the different streets, parks, and other landmarks nearby isn’t something you can do while walking down the street.

Photography is the same thing. It freezes that moment in time and allows you to hold it in your hand, allowing you to take the time to fully examine it at your leisure. It freezes a waterfall to the point that you can study the individual drops of water or take that same waterfall and allow you to see how the water the flows in a silky blur.

A photograph can make you laugh. It can make you cry. It can make you hate. Or it can make you care about something you didn’t know about. People say that video is the future. I don’t think so. You can’t hold a video, you can’t put it on the wall and make it part of your life. You can only do that with a photograph.

A painting or drawing brings into play the “interpretation” of the artist. Something can be added or taken out of the scene. Or the scene can me completely made up. Ok, you can change a photograph in Photoshop or manipulate it in some other way, but the bottom line is that  it captures what is in front of the camera at that time.

I am not trying to take anything away from video or any other form of art, but to me photography is truth. It shows the world. The world at that one moment in time.

That is why I don’t like over manipulating an image. Yes, I sometimes remove a post or a piece of trash and that probably makes me seem like a hypocrite. I didn’t say that I objected to the artist’s manipulation, but I think it should be overwhelmingly truthful in it’s presentation of the scene. Not to the point of journalism, which MUST, by nature of honesty in reporting, not have any photomanipulation in them at all. But I try to capture what I see when I press the shutter button.

When I see the scene, I don’t see the trash or the pole, thus I can take them out of the final image without feeling like I have betrayed the purpose of taking the photo in the first place.

This is not a judgment on other people’s works, but an explanation as to what I like to see in my work and what I look for in other images. I know art and every other creative process is subjectively different to every individual, but art is supposed to make you think and even be controversial, therefore, those are my thoughts.