If you’re “just” photographing your family, get the BEST photo equipment you can afford (that you are able to use, or can learn to use).

— Peter | Prosophos.

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I was prompted to write the above after reading yet another, “if you’re just photographing your family, get a cheap point-and-shoot” comment on one of the internet forums.  It always leaves me shaking my head when I come across that sort of statement, not because I have anything against inexpensive cameras (which I’ve used and continue to use, and which can be used to take wonderful photos), but because of the implication behind the words, that – for whatever reason – your family is not worthy of the best* equipment.

Nonsense.

Documenting your family’s timeline – the various trials and tribulations, the tears, the joy, the exciting, the mundane, the…  the anything – is one of the most important things you can do with a camera.  The snobbery around exclusively using “pro” equipment (whatever that is) to photograph athletes, celebrities, or otherwise “important” individuals is laughable.  As if most of us are able to remember more than a handful of “pro” magazine cover images we’ve ever seen…

Instead, it’s all those images reminding us of the births, marriages, and deaths of our loved ones, that burn themselves into our brains.

—Peter.

[Note: I also posted this on SteveHuffPhoto.com]

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*Note:  best does not necessarily equate with biggest.