Imagination vs. Reality

"Photography is the expression of imagination, not the duplication of reality."

This is a quote from an article by Ken Rockwell dubbed "The pen and your signature". He brings home the message that the photographer is much more important than the camera, a point Ken has made many times before. And he is right!
This is the reason why I refrain from doing gear-talk on my blog, although I'm a gear-head myself and indulge in scrutinizing every review of photographic gear - even doing reviews by myself. But that is a totally different hobby from actually shooting images. But if you're actually interested in some of the gear I use or have tested, here's a list of reviews I did over at the friendly Camera Labs forum.

As you can see from some of the reviews I really struggled with some lenses and I'm still not sure whether I simply got a "lemon" (like the 85/1.8) or really have discovered something that others have overlooked. That makes testing a real nuisance and I limit it to lenses I actually intend to buy.

When I'm shooting I really like the gear to be "transparent", i.e. not to show up in the image unless I want it to. That's not because I want to duplicate reality. It's because I want to express my imagination and not expose the limitations of my gear!