My reliance on essentially just two cameras for the last six months – my Sony Xperia phone for family shots and Panasonic Lumix FZ38 for more intentional artistic work – has meant that even though the remainder of my camera arsenal is small these days, it’s still sat gathering dust.
Which rests uneasily with me.
I don’t know, I just don’t like having stuff that I don’t use – especially if someone else could be getting use from it.
Partly too, the clutter of it bothers me.
My cameras are now contained pretty neatly within a few shelves on a slim bookcase, plus another small box, which combined wouldn’t take up much space in the smallest of rooms.
I just don’t like using up space for something I don’t need. I’d rather have the space, than the redundant stuff filling the space.
What this also does somehow is hold up a giant mirror to the western consumer junkie within me, that still buys far more (and more often) then he needs, and on many days would be happy with a total of possessions I could count on two hands.
Akin to Thoreau living at Walden Pond and seeing a man pass with his entire worldly possessions in a small bag on his back, Thoreau felt sorry for him not for how little he had in the way of physical possessions, but how much.
This is all exacerbated by my main outlet for superfluous possessions – charity shops – being unavailable still, with only essential retail currently open to the public here in the ongoing lockdown.
So we have bags of stuff gradually building in corners of rooms, reflecting and amplifying our consumerism, rather than it being hurriedly ushered out of our door and through someone else’s, to conveniently sidestep the underlying issue.
I’m probably overthinking all of this.
It wouldn’t be the first time.
How about you? Have you used a wider, or narrower range of cameras in the last year? Do you have gear gathering dust that you’re keen to move on to a new owner who’ll use it more?
Please let us know in the comments below (and don’t forget to tick the “Notify me of new comments via email” box to follow the conversation).
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35hunter 
Well, what do you need to sell?
:—)))
Steadily working my way through my collection and it’s combinations using adapters, and loving it!
I have a few lenses and cameras. I should really update my For Sale page here and make it live again. Are you in the UK?
I did not use my LX3 for a few years. I’m however happy I did not sell (or give) it because I am happy to find it and use it again. We often have things that we do not always use but we are happy to have at some point. Like tools for repairing things that you seldom use but sometimes you really need them. As far as I understand, photography is quite important to you, so maybe it is worth waiting before separating from cameras you do not use at the moment, you do not know in what direction your practice of photography is going to take you!
Yeh and there have been cameras or lenses I’ve sold in the past, then bought the same one a few years later! I don’t have that much in total, just times when I’m hardly using more than one camera it seems pointless having many other options.
It happens. We go through cycles. If you don’t cycle around to some of your shelved cameras in a couple years, it’s probably a sign to let them go.
Thanks to a kind benefactor, I now have more photo gear than I have ever had in my life before. Currently, I don’t seem to be enthusiastic about taking pictures at all.
Typical. More gear, more possibilities, less muse. Of course, they’re not related and it’ll come back I expect, probably when all the outside pressures of just existing safely are relieved.
By the way, I’m giving Flickr another go, so I’ll look you up Dan.
Bear, I’m not sure they are unrelated, I have certainly felt in the past that having more options means less inspiration and motivation to use one of them, not just in photography. For me there’s a reciprocal relationship there.
Too much stuff? You are joking, right?
Seriously though, I’ll go through phases like that when I realize some things are sitting unused and should be sold or given away. But they’re not frequent 🙂
I understand where you are coming from because my wife is like that. She goes through my things, especially clothes and shoes, and basically throws out whatever she thinks I don’t need. So there’s been times when I had to do yard work and did not have an old pair of shoes to wear…
Needless to say, I keep most of my camera equipment hidden from view…
Not joking Chris! You mentioned before about your wife throwing out your stuff. I can’t imagine doing that to my wife, or her to me, just seems so disrespectful! I can see why you hide your photography gear!