The debate over whether expensive gear is essential for high-quality photography is ongoing in the photography community. A professional photographer’s experiment with Sony’s cheapest interchangeable lens camera for a week of professional work offers insightful perspectives on this topic and serves as a great reminder that you don’t always need the latest and greatest.

Coming to you from PJ Pantelis, this great video follows him across four real photo shoots over a week, including a food shoot, two product shoots, and a portrait session, using Sony’s most affordable camera, the ZV-E10. To maintain the challenge’s integrity, instead of pairing the camera with expensive lenses, he opts for affordable options recommended by YouTube’s cheap lens expert, Mark Wiemels. The chosen lenses include a 27mm f/2.8 for around $15, a 35mm f/1.8 for about $150, and a unique 60mm macro lens priced at approximately $140. Pantelis’ initial skepticism about these cheaper lenses quickly turns to surprise as he finds them outperforming his expectations, particularly the macro lens, which he credits for some of his favorite images ever. This experience highlights how affordable gear can still produce high-quality results, challenging the notion that expensive equipment is a prerequisite for professional photography and underscoring the importance of sound technique.

During the shoots, Pantelis encounters some initial challenges with focusing and lighting, especially with the kit lens. However, switching to the third-party lenses yields much better results. The 27mm and 35mm lenses become his go-to choices, offering the needed depth of field and image quality. The macro lens, despite its manual focus and challenges, proves invaluable, especially in product photography. Pantelis’ success in delivering quality images that seamlessly matched his previous work and received no negative feedback on platforms like Instagram underscores the equipment’s capability in a professional setting.

For any photographer questioning the necessity of investing in high-end gear, this video is a must-watch. It demonstrates how, with skill and creativity, one can achieve professional-grade photography with more budget-friendly equipment. That’s particularly important in an industry where we are frequently attempted to buy our way to better results. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Pantelis. 

In an endeavor to celebrate love captured in still frames, Junebug Weddings, a premier wedding planning website, has recently unveiled the finalists for their annual Best of the Best Wedding Photography contest. A contest that set a global stage for photographers to showcase their talent, it garnered submissions from practitioners of this art form worldwide, accumulating nearly 10,000 photos as candidates for the honor.

A Confluence of Emotion, Artistry, and Scenery

The contest, known for its discerning taste in photography, selected 50 out of the near 10,000 entries for the final line-up. These images, each a poignant tale of its own, are distinguished for their ability to stir potent emotions. They exemplify the art of encapsulating the profound love between couples, often set against an array of awe-inspiring backdrops that further heighten the visual appeal.

Curating the Standout Images

Junebug Weddings demonstrated a keen eye for quality, choosing photographs that not only exhibited technical skill but also conveyed deep emotional resonance. The images selected for the final showcase are a testament to the transformative power of photography – turning fleeting moments into timeless visual narratives. The final collection, a rich tapestry of diverse styles, themes, and perspectives, is a tribute to the art of wedding photography.

Accessible Artistry

The selected images, a remarkable fusion of art and emotion, can be viewed on the Junebug Weddings website. This accessibility ensures that these cherished moments are not limited to private albums but are shared with a wider audience, inviting them to partake in the joy, love, and beauty that these photographs encapsulate.

Today, we would like to present you with images by Aaditya Shrirang Bhat, a young photography enthusiast from India who creates unique photo stories during the sunset. The 21-year-old man is a recent graduate with a degree in psychology from the Arts faculty.

Most of the photos shared by the photographer online feature nature. On his Facebook profile, you can admire some macro shots, as well as breathtaking landscapes. Finally, there are photo stories showcasing people’s silhouettes and the sun, playing a crucial role in each shot. Scroll down to see a selection of the best images by Aaditya and to read our interview with the photographer.

More info: Instagram | Facebook

Much of photography’s strength lies in the medium’s ability to testify to what was. 

In our reporting, our photography serves as evidence, centers the value of emotion and evokes possibilities. With the same diligence used to tell our stories, we shine light on harmful parts of our community that benefit from being obscured. We try to help preserve history to disarm erasure. 

In order to create a more perfect collective history to take into 2024, we asked some of our regular contributors and other photographers in the community to share the five best images that resonate with what they saw, learned or felt this year. Each piece over the next three days will include a collection from two different photographers. We hope to continue traditions of remembering with y’all in the years to come. 

Andrea Morales

In this sixth year as visuals editor at MLK50, I doubled down on using photography to bear witness to our community’s struggle and celebrations in equal measure. I know that memory can suffer when you wake up weary. 

“Such is the power of the photograph, of the image, that it can give back and take away, that it can bind,” wrote bell hooks in her essay “In Our Glory: Photography and Black Life.”

As photographers, we make work to remember in the way that hooks reminds us we can: re-member by bringing together severed parts and fragments in order to behold the whole. 

How we remember this year faces irreparable fracture in our memory because of the ongoing genocides, merciless economic inflation and the traumas we’re surviving. Our struggles and our joy are connected in Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “single garment of destiny.” But, ultimately, oppression creates fault lines causing the weight of the world to not be experienced evenly. 

Photography can help reclaim our past, renew our bonds and, through it, we can recommit to finding ways of sharing that weight. As hooks says, if one searches the images carefully they will find “a recuperative, redemptive memory” with which to build a radical future.

Bailey Sullivan

Bailey Sullivan spent his year growing. 

While that’s normal for a teenager, Sullivan was really invested in his growth as a photographer. 

MLK50 heard from the art teacher at his school that he was an avid photographer with an interest in photojournalism. We asked him to share some images that help us understand what is worth taking away from 2023.  

“My hope is to become consistent and to be able to look back on photos that I took, even if just a month ago, and to not be embarrassed, but proud of what my one month younger self was able to accomplish,” he said. 

The photos in his collection represent different lessons he’s learned in his journey to visual storytelling. His mother was a photographer in the armed services, so his enthusiasm is deeply instilled.

“She made sure that I appreciated the art form and fostered my love of art and documentation of all varieties,” he said. “Photography is an incredible art form that can tell the true story behind a person and write a narrative that explores the depths of the human imagination.”

Andrea Morales is the visuals director for MLK50: Justice Through Journalism. Email her at  andrea.morales@mlk50.com

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