Alliums, Monhegan Island, Maine

What Man Ray actually said was:

“People ask ‘What kind of camera do you use?’ I say ‘You don’t ask a writer what kind of typewriter he uses.'”

It is especially funny because Ray is most famous for “Ray-o-grams” that are black and white prints he made in his darkroom without any camera at all.

But I write this because I bought a new camera and also because I am asked this question a fair amount. There is a point to it- a better camera captures images with more detail, a broader range of tones, and will withstand greater enlargement. The new camera I bought is a Fuji X-T3. More properly, I re-bought it because I originally purchased one this spring but returned it because I didn’t think I could make the kind of really big prints I most like. But the camera was great in every other respect. To me it handles like one of my friend Mo Nadkarni’s convertibles instead of the 16 year-old minivan my wife makes me drive. I already have a great Nikon that will let me make big prints, but I bought the Fuji again because I wanted a smaller less obvious camera to start doing more street/people photography. It is also just fun to use.

So what does that have to do with this picture? This image is from a trip to Monhegan Island. A small island 10 miles off the coast of Maine, Monhegan is famous as a hangout for artists like Jamie Wyeth and Rockwell Kent. I took this picture walking down the gravel road from the lighthouse with a 7 megapixel canon point and shoot 10+ years ago. At that moment I couldn’t  be bothered to take out my big camera, yet it is one of my favorite Monhegan Island pictures. What Man Ray reminds me is that it is the eye behind the camera that makes the picture!