Do you need to learn photography?

or is that something technology has taken away?

So the Nikon Z9 has been officially announced and no matter what camera system you currently use I’m sure you can agree that the Z9 looks pretty amazing. It has certainly made my Christmas list, although I am also certain that before I can afford it’s hefty price tag, it will be yesterdays news.

I watched the announcement videos and have done some reading about it and I am sufficiently impressed. As always however, when looking at these new mirrorless cameras, that side of me comes out… You know, the grumpy old man side of me that starts muttering about young whippersnappers and walking 12 miles to school (uphill both ways). You get the idea.

Blue butterfly by Tim Wells

I can’t help but wonder these days, how much knowledge of the workings of photography is needed in order to take great photos? It seems like, putting aside the cost barrier, that modern cameras are designed to do much of the thinking for the shooter. This isn’t a bad thing, especially not so if you already have that working knowledge of the exposure triangle and how light works. It means you can let the technology handle a lot of that and you as the creator can focus more on the composition, and creative aspects rather than the technical.