The Constant Urge to Upgrade

I’ve been shooting outdoor photography and video for the better part of the last decade and a half. In that time, I’ve upgraded my camera body and cycled through dozens of lenses. As a matter of fact, as I am writing this article in a South Austin coffee shop (hang on, I gotta go grab my cappuccino) I’m actually contemplating picking up a new camera body from a gentleman on Facebook Marketplace this afternoon. I have a problem, don’t judge me.. 

However, what I’m writing about right now is how to know when NOT to upgrade your gear, or better yet, how to not obsess over whether you really need that new camera body or lens. It’s a trap I’ve seen many people fall into, including myself. The never ending urge to upgrade, and the nagging feeling that your shots could be just that much better if only you had that new thing. Hopefully by reading this, you can learn from my experience on when you only think you need a new piece of gear and when you actually need it. 

Evaluate Your Current Results 

The first thing I’d recommend to anyone who has the new gear bug is to do a little exercise of self-reflection. Open up lightroom (or whatever photo processing app you use), and go through your last few sessions of shots. Resist the urge to edit any photos or get distracted, but really observe what you captured, and how many shoots you’ve had in the last 30 days or so. If you’re not a working professional photographer, you may find that you haven’t shot that much in the last month. If that’s the case, you may not have a gear problem, but an inspiration or motivation problem. That’s a totally different fix. In that case, get your ass off the computer and go shoot something. Then come back. 

If you don’t have an inspirational motivational problem, then start scrolling through those photos with a critical eye. Pick out a few of your best shots, and maybe a couple that didn’t work. Here’s where you need to be really honest with yourself. The shots that worked - why did they work? I’d bet my cappuccino that most of the ones that you like the most worked because of basic photography techniques and principles - great lighting, properly executed composition, a really spectacular moment or an interesting subject. Well done, you made a great photo. 

Now, for those others… the shots that didn’t work. Why did they fail to hit the mark? Did you have the lighting you needed to make the shot? Was the composition solid, and the subject interesting? Did you miss on any of those? Was your technique appropriate for the situation (ie. shutter speed, ISO, aperture etc.)? Hot tip, if you’re using Lightroom, use the shortcut [insert function] to see all your camera and lens settings while you took the shot. 

There’s an old (and probably politically incorrect) adage, “Is it the Indian or the arrow?” If you failed on any of the basics, then it’s not the arrow’s fault that the shot didn’t work aka not a gear problem. 

On the flipside, if you notice that you had a great subject, your composition was strong, and you had the best possible settings on your camera dialed in, but the shot didn’t work, start by asking a  couple of questions. What would have fixed this? Would upgraded equipment have made a tangible difference? Could a camera body with more dynamic range have made the shadows or the highlights salvagable on a landscape shot? Could a shallower depth of field from a faster lens have made your subject pop more and made for a more compelling image? Remember, we’re being totally honest with this self-review, so make sure that these are real issues that caused the image to be unusable, and not just nice-to-have types of improvements. If the new gear only improves the photo by 2%, then it’s not worth the expense. 

Gear as Motivation

This is something that gets me a lot, and I’m betting a few of you have run into this as well. You find that your motivation to get out and shoot more photos is the absolute strongest right after you pick up a shiny new toy, and you race out into the world to use that new body or lens, and you are just amazed at all the cool shots you’re finding with such ease. It’s like Christmas morning, and for a brief moment, you might even feel like you did when you first discovered the joys of photography. You’ll shoot anything because you’ve got a fresh eye, and sub-consciously you might even think it’s the new gear that is propelling you along to new heights. 

But there is a problem. This motivation is fleeting at best. It’s a false sense of excitement with diminishing returns that fall off exponentially after those first few trips. Soon you’ll find yourself unmotivated again when the shine of that new piece of gear wears off, and your shots will start to feel pedestrian again. This is the moment where I typically find myself back reading gear reviews or cruising the web looking for things to upgrade. I’m like an addict chasing that previous “new gear” high. Don’t fall into that trap. 

So how do you break that cycle? Well, to keep going with that addict comparison, you’ve got to break the habit. If you feel like you’re stuck in this type of a rut, the solution is simple but difficult. GO SHOOT SOMETHING. If you don’t know what to shoot, take a walk with the camera in hand. Find an online photo challenge on a subject that you’re interested in, and go try to get a shot that fits whatever criteria is set. There are literally thousands of these photo challenges online at any given moment. It doesn’t even matter if you enter your photo, just use it as a vehicle to get back out there. Another good use of time is to join a local photography group, or catch up with other photographer friends to see if you can schedule time to catch-up and shoot. It’s easier to be motivated with a buddy, and you’ll keep yourself from going back to obsessing over gear. 

Gear is Expensive, Spend on Things that Matter 

Here’s something you may not know about photography. This shit can be expensive. I shoot Canon primarily, and they seem to be hell-bent on making their latest and greatest lenses the same cost as a 4 door sedan, especially their long lenses for wildlife photography. This creates a big challenge for someone like me who doesn’t do this professionally. 

Similar to some of my previous points, here’s another opportunity for a bit of self-reflection. Take a new thing that you might be wanting - let’s say it’s a new lens for the sake of this example. Price it out, check B&H, check Marketplace - what’s the hit to your wallet going to be? Now, with that number in mind, do some research on places you could go using that budget. This doesn’t have to be a trip around the world (though it certainly could be if we’re talking long lens Canon RF glass), and ask yourself, am I hamstringing my ability to go see the world because I’m focused on spending my hard earned cash on a new thing? Could I get some epic shots with what I’ve already got in my hand, and spend that money on a flight, or a car rental, or a trip to a National Park or some cool city? 

Go on the trip instead or book that experience. You’ll be happier in the end, and probably still be able to get some shots with what you’ve got in-hand. Worst case scenario, if you’re really under-supplied in terms of the stuff you need to shoot the photos you want, try renting it from your local camera store or an online source like Borrow Lenses or Lens Rentals and then get out there. 

In conclusion (my cappuccino is getting cold, so I need to leave), do your due diligence before you make the call to upgrade your stuff. There is definitely a time for it, but make sure it’s the right time, and you’re not just doing it for the sake of doing it. Let me know if any of this resonated with you, and if you’ve found yourself in a similar place. Now… where’s my wallet, I need to go buy that new camera body. 

My Current Wildlife Photography Kit

Whenever I show my photography work to just about anyone on Instagram, my website, or in print, one of the most common (if not THE most common) questions I receive is “what camera did you use to take that?”

It can be a bit off-putting to be entirely honest, as it seems to indicate that the “gear” is responsible for the quality image vs the photographer.

I’ll give you an example that is honestly a bit dumb, but somewhat illustrates what I mean: Imagine watching a major-league baseball player hit a record number of home-runs, and then in the post-game interview, the reporter was only focused on asking him about the bat that he used to hit those home-runs. “Excuse me Aaron Judge, what bat did you just use to hit homerun 62?” Kind of discounts the amount of hard work, training, practice, and determination it takes to become a master of his profession if the only thing anyone could focus on was the specific tool he used to get there, right?

But at the same time, I get it. I’m constantly tweaking my own photography kit, and sometimes it helps to know what others are using that helps them create the amazing images that they are capturing as artists. So I’ll quit my belly-aching about the gear inquiries, and just lay it out with links included.

**Note: I’m not fancy enough to have a following that warrants affiliate links and all that jazz, so I’m just linking to my local camera shop which is a great place, and way cooler than Amazon.

Here’s a sample of my wildlife gallery. Some (but not all) are shot with this kit.

Bull Elk Under a Rainbow

A large bull elk positioned directly under a stunning rainbow in a Colorado mountain valley.

Drop Tine Bugles

A big bull elk with a unique drop-tine antler bugles directly at me in a sunlit meadow.

Shedding Velvet at Sunrise

This giant bull elk was finishing up his annual process of stripping the velvet from his set of antlers for this year. This process only takes a couple of days to complete, so to capture a great bull during this short window of time and with great light was a real stroke of luck.

Airborne Buck

I’ve always wanted to capture a photo of a whitetail buck jumping over a fence. I’m always amazed at how easy they make it look. I must confess that I had an opportunity on a different buck about a week before I took this photo, and I completely botched the shot! It was out of focus and way too far zoomed in, so I was incredibly happy when I got this opportunity for redemption, and was able to learn from my mistakes and make this one count!

Elk Calves and Cow

This cow elk looks over the top of her calves. I almost didn’t even notice there were two little ones at first.

Long Distance Challenge

Two mature bull elk stare each other down across a meadow during the September rut. The bull in the background bugles his challenge to the rival elk.

Whitetail Fawn

As Summer arrives, so do the tiniest whitetail deer fawns. Their spindly legs and beautiful spotted coats make for a fun sight around the woods if you’re lucky enough to see one.

Copy of The Staredown

We were fortunate to be visiting Rocky Mountain National Park at the exact time that most of the larger bull elk in the park were shedding their velvet and rubbing their antlers on trees and brush. This big bull was feeding and stared me down with the dreadlocks of stripped velvet hanging from his antlers. To say it was an amazing moment would be an understatement!

Sunrise Buck

I captured this photo on a crisp November morning as this buck was following around a couple of does. The silhouette was perfect, as the sun was just about to crest over the hills behind him.

Doe & Fawn

This was a tender moment between a mother and her fawn on a Spring afternoon. It was a blast to watch them interact and work their way across the

Deer in the Snowstorm

These Texas does were not used to a heavy snowfall like this. Made for a great image though and a really cool experience.

A nice buck working a scrape in the Texas Hill Country during the fall.

Rocky Mountain Elk Battle

It’s hard for me to imagine a more breathtaking scene than two bull elk sparring on a grassy hillside with a Rocky Mountain backgdrop. The evening storms that were brewing just added to the drama.

Bull Elk Sun

A large bull elk stands in the sun on a ridge top with a backdrop of dark trees in Colorado.

1. The Camera: Canon EOS R5 Mirrorless Camera Body

   I could argue that this is less important than some other items (lenses primarily), but since it’s the star of the show, I’ll start here.

   Things I love:

   • Relatively small compared to DSLR bodies

   • Crazy good auto-focus (eye focus is superb)

   • Can shoot really high FPS for fast moving subjects

   • Really good in low-light and with handling noise

   • Video is solid, but has some drawbacks

   • Uses Canon’s new RF lens technology

   Things I don’t love:

   • Battery life is less than I expected

   • I can’t for the life of me find a way to disable the autorotation on the viewfinder (if you know, help!)

   • Pricey

   • Overheating issues with some video settings, and I even got an overheat warning when doing a lot of long exposures in a row shooting some fireworks over Austin. Kinda lame if you ask me for a $4K camera body. Get your sh*t together, Canon.

2. My Primary Lens of Choice: Canon RF 100-500mm f4.5-7.1

This little beauty has quickly become one of my all-time favorite lenses. The versatility it gives you is almost unmatched, and it comes with a fairly lightweight and small footprint relative to similar other lenses in this focal length. There are a few trade-offs, but that is to be expected with such a wide range and (relatively) inexpensive price point. It’s not cheap, but I’ll get into that more in a second.

Things I love:

• Versatility. Simply put, you can do a LOT with this lens. Wildlife obviously comes to mind given its reach at 500mm, but it’s also a very serviceable portrait lens if you’re outdoors, and even is a great option for landscape photography when you want to isolate parts of your scene vs. capturing everything with a wide angle option. Additionally, for wildlife, it’s occasionally preferrable in my opinion to capture more of the overall environment vs. just capturing your subject as close as possible. Example Image here. This lens gives you that option, while also letting you get in tighter when you want to. Try that with a 600 or 800mm prime.

• Image quality - It’s sharp. Very sharp.

• Size - when it’s at 100mm, it’s only slightly larger than a 70-200mm lens.

• Weight - You can hand hold this bad boy vs. always needing a tripod. This means more creative angle opportunity, easier packability if you’re hiking in, and you’re much more likely to have it in your bag if you know it’s not a nightmare to transport. Coming from a GIANT Sigma 150-600mm sport lens, this is critical. The Sigma was nice, but massive, which meant it got left at home a lot.

Things I don’t love:

• Price - It’s almost $3k with tax. Quite the investment, but compare that to any other RF lenses of “L” quality, and you’ll find it’s actually less of a punch to the wallet than it could be. I just think Canon has gotten drunk on profits on these newer RF L lenses. There are cheaper non L primes at 600 and 800mm, but you lose flexibility in range, weather sealing, light gathering, and likely image quality as well. I haven’t tested them personally, but specs seem to point to that.

• Light Gathering - speaking of light, this lens is pretty slow at 4.5-7.1. Especially on the long end, you’re going to run into some issues at dawn and dusk especially with the 7.1 aperture. I may write another blog on some of my specific settings that I use to mitigate this, but it’s something to be aware of. You’re also not going to get that crazy good bokeh that you’d get with an f4 or faster lens. Photography is a game of trade-offs. One thing I’d ABSOLUTELY recommend to make your lens seem faster than it is - Topaz Labs DeNoise AI. I’m not affiliated with them at all (Get at me Topaz if you want to be!), but I’m amazed at what this software does to improve images especially when light is a challenge. Let me know if I should write a blog on how I use it.

• Bokeh - The bokeh is mostly good with this lens. I’ve run into some issues that I can’t quite explain where sometimes the bokeh looks like it has squiggly lines in it? I especially saw this when I shot on the EOS R vs the R5, but either way, it’s a slower lens, so the bokeh i just not going to be as buttery smooth as something f4 or faster. Trade-offs again.

• Extenders - I hate the fact that you can’t use a 1.4x or 2.0x teleconverter with the FULL RANGE of this lens. You’re basically forced into only using it at the long end, which is just annoying to me. Since the lens has to be extended when the extender is on, that means you can’t even leave it on the lens and shrink it down to its normal size with the externder while packing it around. It’s dumb.

In summary, I love this lens, but yet I know at some point when funds are available, I’m going to go with a true dedicated wildlife lens that is much larger, heavier, faster, and likely has better image quality. For me, I just can’t stomach the cost right now, so the 100-500mm is the ticket for me. If you’ve got the coin, go for one of those big RF primes. I’m sure they’re amazing.

So this is it. As crazy as it sounds, this is pretty much all I bring with me when I’m out photographing wildlife. The only other piece of gear that I occasionally use is the Canon Battery grip for the R5. Obviously it doubles your battery capacity, but the real benefit of this piece of kit is the option to easily flip to a vertical composition while maintaining the ergonomics of normal shooting. This is a game changer if you shoot a lot of vertical stuff.

Leave a comment if you found any of this valuable, and shoot me a message if you have any questions. I’m not a technical wizard, but just a normal dude using all this stuff in the real world as a hobbyist, so I’ll shoot you straight with everything I know!

-Tyler