Lensbaby

Lately i have been thinking about what makes a great photographer. What is most important, to have the best equipment? Is a great photographer one that always gets the light, aperture and so on right? Or is the most important thing not to always get it right, not always know what you're doing but being able to see what has potential? To look throu 100 of mostly worthless pics and being able to see which one's the money shot? What do you think makes a great photographer?

It's definitely about finding potential in things. Whether that means finding potential in your equipment, your subject or your surroundings is anyone's guess :)

The real question, however, is what is the difference between a good photographer and a great one? But that's for another day...

It's the eye. It's what you see. Equipment can help--for example, in getting the Lensbaby effect. But it's not essential. I always smile when someone looks at one of my better photos and says, "Wow--what kind of camera do you have?" And more often than not in the last two years, I can say, "I took that with my iPhone."

for me, photography is about emotions/sensations.
you have to feel a particular emotion, be able to caught the moment and comunicate it to "the rest of the world".
equipments (camera and lenses) and technical knowledge (light, aperture, and so on) are tools that the photographer needs to handle properly. but they remain tools.
the patience and the constancy we put in this effort to comunicate our feelings make us grow and get better day by day.
at the bottom line, photography is an art. how can we decide/define if someone is a great artist?

francesco

the river flows
and in it I swim