The borderlands in far West Texas become a little poorer every day. That is strange given the amount of commerce that passes along the highways to and from Mexico. In some measure this is the result of the politics of division practiced in the United States. Small areas around the major border crossings and the maquiladoras flourish. The rest of the border is an economic desert fit only for the tit-for-tat of smugglers and authorities.
Sometimes it is hard to remember the world of just a few months ago. Now we are living in a world of alt facts, alt world view and most certainly alt reality.
“I was thinking, which is a thing a man should not do, and all at once I couldn’t remember what any of them looked like. I, I couldn’t see their faces” – Major Stovall: Twelve O’Clock High
It is interesting looking back at these photographs which were made in 2007 using my first DSLR, a Canon 10D. A couple of things come to mind. First, you can get quite a lot of information out of a 6mp RAW file if the exposure is reasonably good. Also, I used a tripod more then and the images are better for doing so. I was way too busy trying to shoot trophy images to recognize those things at the time.
I purchased the 10D from a pro photographer after he bought a new Canon 30D. In truth my envy for his 8mp sensor camera was overflowing. The older 6mp camera seemed quite inferior measured against such a fine photographic tool as the 30D. In hindsight the 10D was nearly perfect for an inexperienced wannabe photographer.
The 10D started me off on a series of Canon gear, 10D, 5D, 40D and 60D. All had good qualities and each improved upon the previous camera. The 5D was something of an outlier, it had the advantages of full frame capture but functionally it reminded me of a clunky oversized 10D. Only the 60D was purchased new and that was a struggle on my shoestring hobbyist budget.
Fortunately it is easy to find excellent used gear one or two generations old. People still think the newest cameras will always make the best photographs. My current Sony A7II 24mp full frame camera is a generation or more behind current standards. It has quite modest specs compared to newer models. Even so, I sometimes struggle to use all the performance it is capable of providing.
After years of practice I finally get it. Photographers make photographs and cameras capture light. That is a good thing to remember when considering new gear.