I love you, Jo Jo. Your passion for this craft will only continue to make you a better photographer in understanding yourself and continue growing all the wiser. To be a great craftsman is in the heart, and a great photographer can make a shoebox & a pinhole take breathtaking images, where a great camera cannot do anything with a user unwilling to learn. For them, as you mentioned, there are those cameras that require you to do little more than push a button. This is why it is so important for people like you to be there to direct individuals to what most suits their needs. I’m serious! It is such an unfortunate myth that “professional photo equipment makes a professional photographer”. That statement as put is 100% false, as you discussed, Joanna. But for whatever reason nobody ever seems to get that they are tools split into two categories; cameras that do it all and cameras that do what you tell it to. If you don’t know what to tell it, well, you’re going to need to learn how or return it before it ends up wasting away in your closet… Whether expensive or cheap, you need what tools work for you and what you want to do, and that should be the only deciding factor in what photo equipment you should purchase. Or maybe you just need to stick to banking and hire Joanna to work her trade, providing you with images that you will most likely not be able to take as a beginner unless by accident (in which case do not try to sell it for BIG $ because I will find you and I will destroy your hard-copies. ggrrrrr).

I miss you, #1. Your pictures continue to amaze me and put a smile on this bitter face.

With All My Love,
JP