Rick LePage:

I had an interesting conversation with someone the other day, one that I felt was worth recounting here. I was at a bookstore, perusing photography books for possible review here on the website.

It was clearly a very slow day at the bookstore, and while I was at the register, the checkout dude murmured something like, “these look interesting. I’d really like to take better pictures. I really need a better camera. Which one should I buy?”

To which I replied, “Which phone do you have?”

“An iPhone 7,” he said.

“Then you don’t need a new camera; you’ve got a pretty awesome one right there with you,” I replied.

He shook his head and said that his photos “just sucked.”

Like Rick, I have this conversation on a regular basis and his advice mirrors mine. As I teach in my classes for beginners, the camera you have really doesn’t matter. What you know about it specifically and photography in general are much more important.