I told you! What should Canon and Nikon do?

I told ya weeks ago how Canon and Nikon have been dissapointing.
I'm glad I'm not the only one with that same feeling.
Here is a video from the camera store guys that pretty much echoes this thought.

For real it's time for canon and Nikon to wake up! bring something new to the table! Whatever happened to Innovation. As far as I'm concerned, I'm good in the mirrorless world.

Then I read something today about Nikon having bad sales and forecast right now. wow

HnRM rants on Canon and Nikon: 2 uninspired Giants

                 photo from oneslidephotography.com

I USED to dream about owning a Canon or a Nikon.

It's a great time to be a photographer.
From beginners to seasoned professionals, we have consecutive exciting cameras that come out on a regular basis. DSLR or Mirrorless. It's pretty amazing. Come on, in less than 2 years, we had the Olympus OMD EM1, the EM10, sony blessed us with the A7s series, RX series,Fuji with the XT1, Pentax K3... just to name a few.
Yeah, I did not cite canon or Nikon among those, you know why?
They have been sleeping. 

Don't get me wrong, If you're a sport photographer, the canon 1Dx is the way to go,and whatever the nikon equivalent of it.
But beside those, What else? What else? It's dry out there.
Canon 700D? shit, If you own a 600d why upgrade? same design, slightly improved specs...
Canon 1200D? same ol samy.
The 6D, beside the autofocus in low light, what else?
the list goes on and on. What camera did they release, that "wowed" us. Nothing, not a f*cking thing.
Nikon tanked with their Df.
Do I really need to cite Nikon cameras? D5300? D7100? shit, Ain't nobody got time fot that...

Once again don't get me wrong, they released average to good cameras. But nothing exciting.

4-5 years ago, I wasn't even paying attention to Olympus, today, I'm excited about every announcement they make.
I've always like sony cameras; many of those who were bullying Sony, have hopped on the Sony wagon. They relased consecutive hot cameras, with new design, innovative softwares. Come on, think about focus peaking, face detection, all of these things. INNOVATION THAT HELP YOU TAKE BETTER IMAGES.
I'll probably get some heat from the die hard Canon and Nikon fans, but I do not even care at this point; I just speak my mind.
I hope we'll get some pretty amazing cameras from Canon and Nikon soon. In fact I want them to push the envelope. That will only be beneficial to us photographers, beginners or Pros.

I WANT to dream about owning a Canon or a Nikon.

It's not the camera, It's you (who take good or bad pictures)

It's crazy how photographers blame their camera for bad quality pictures.

Your camera is just a tool... To me, the way you composed your shot is the key to a great picture. Plus with technology, you need to have basic skills in post processing. I've seeen guys with 5D's comiing up with horrible pictures / I seen people with cheap little samsung point and shoot taking fantastic pictures.

• Know your damn camera...Indeed know what your camera can do,  know what it cannot do.
• Know how to hold it. It's funny, sometimes you go to these venue, and see so called "professional photographers" that don't even hold their cameras properly...SMH. This Jared Polin video will be a great start for you.

• If you don't have a camera or plan to change your current camera, you need to study cameras, do your homework on different types of cameras, choose your camera according to the type of photography you want to do.
• Get off the CANON andd NIKON wagons, getting a CANON or NIKON camera will not make you a better photographers... Don't get me wrong those 2 giants make great cameras. But other brands make cameras that also kick asses. SONY, OLYMPUS, PANASONIC make better mirrorless cameras. It's a fact.    

• I've seen people who shoots with smartphones, getting some amazing results from it. You know why? They know how to compose their shots.
• Something i've learned is that you need, to pre-conceive the shot before taking it. See the shot, frame it in your eyes and take it. You definitely need to know your camera to do it. know what your lens can take, how wide it can go.... ALL THAT IS KNOWING YOUR CAMERA.
• Know the basics rules of composition like the rule of thirds, leading lins, symmetry. Don't get me wrong, rules can be broken, but knowing, learning and applying them will improve your photography.

Sky is NOT the limit

In the above picture above I ignore all the rules for instance. but know damn well that I preconceived the shot before taking it.

• If your camera has the option to shoot in RAW, SHOOT RAW... your photography will improve drastically. In that picture above , had I not shot this in RAW, you wouldn't even see those clouds on the left. On the JPEG that I saw on the screen of my camera, I couldn't even see the clouds. The RAW file allowed me to recover them. I'll have a whole post on JPEG vs RAW comparison.
• Use on camera flash only when necessary. I rarely use flash... I only use it for.....fill flash, in outdoor portait or bounce it on ceiling when indoor. that's it. Again if you know you camera, it's ISO capabilities, set the right shutter speed and aperture, you would not even use your flash in low light ( unless the conditions force you do do so).
• In broad daylight, you don't even need to shoot in Manual mode. When it's really bright outside, shoot in Aperture priority mode, It saves time.

image from http://www.photoxels.com/

• Shoot what you love, Edit your shot the way you want. I recommend Adobe lightroom (which is relatively easy). Most of my photos are edited in lightroom alone. I use photoshop 1 time out of 4.
• Megapixels are useful but not that important.
• Get inspiration from photographers you admire, don't copy them, I said get inspired.
• Do it for the artform
• Make Art.