What is the best camera?

The answer is always the same: It’s the camera you have with you.

It may sound simple, but you can’t make an image without a camera.

Iconic images have been made by people who simply carried their own day-to-day cameras. Remember the tragic image of the Air France Flight 4590 Concorde that caught fire in July 2000? Or the image of the firefighter during the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing? Both were shot by some guy with a camera, not a “professional” photographer.

Which camera is right for you?

This is a question that I answer regularly for friends, family and clients, and it always comes down to a few key thin:

What kind of things do you like to photograph?

How much equipment do you want to carry?

And, of course, What is your budget?

Pointers to keep in mind when buying cameras

What you like to photograph will have a big effect on your camera choice. If you are one who just shoots party pics, daylight images of your kids in the park, a prize-winning catch, or your orchids to email to New York relatives, I suggest any point-and-shoot consumer camera that is 8 megapixels or higher. Point and shoot cameras are defined by the small size, and it comes with a lens that can not be removed and automatic features like exposure and autofocus. Most have image stabilization, the ability to shoot a better image in a light challenged conditions. Some higher-end-point-and-shoots have the ability to be turned into a manual mode.

Some of these cameras are just a bit larger than credit cards, but can shoot nice daylight images; they start to struggle when light (or the lack of it) is an issue.

I recently bought my bride a Canon Powershot SD780 (retails for under $300), and it was perfect for our vacation in Puerto Rico. She uses it regularly to document the lives of our two little girls.

But, when it comes to taking pictures of these two little girls on the soccer field, a  beefier camera is required.

Enter the DSLR – digital single-lens reflex, basically, a digital version of the film camera we all carried in college. The cameras nowadays have a series of automatic features, the same found on point-and-shoot cameras, as well as the ability to change lenses. DSLR cameras have been packaged with one or two lenses, with prices starting as little as $600. Some brand name DSLR cameras can work with older lenses that you may already own. Nikon, for example, has never changed their lens mounting system, thus a lens from the ‘60s will fit on a digital camera body of today.(Although most automatic features will not work when vintage is mixed with new.)

The DSLR is a favorite for light travel; being able to change lenses, zoom into something and compose a scene makes the DSLR the camera of choice.

I recommend purchasing a pre-packaged system supplied by the big names in digital cameras. Both Nikon and Canon offer consumers great starting packages hat bundle a camera lens.

Then, of course, there are the professional-grade cameras and lenses, which are very durable, very heavy and very expensive. One of the biggest advantages to a pro-series camera is the “lag-time”, the time in between pushing the button and capturing the image. On a point and shoot, this could be a second or two, enough to make me crazy. However, when you buy a camera marketed to the professional, the lag time is unnoticeable.

Professional lenses will cost substantially more. Glass lenses are generally better and more expensive than their plastic counterparts. Professional lenses have bigger apertures that allows the photographer to let more light in the camera. For example hen shooting without a tripod or flash on hand in a darker situation-such as inside a high school gym or church-the larger apertures make up for the lack of light.

I occasionally shoot high school basketball for the local paper and it would be impossible with out the professional-grade lenses. I document more than a dozen weddings a year, and am always, always up against lighting challenges, so owning the expensive lenses allows me to make images that would otherwise be impossible, such as shots lit by candlelight in a dark church, for example.

Having the right tools for the job-whether it’s wedding photography, shots of the kids on a Saturday, or party pictures to update your Facebook, Keeps everybody smiling without having to say, “Cheese!”

And from there, I launched into the classic journalistic speak about changing the world, making a difference and creating a call to action. And then he said something that I’ll always remember: None of the aforementioned things will happen if the photo isn’t strong enough to prevent the reader from turning the page. Compositon had to be strong, content had to be powerful, and the moment had to be right. All three things had to work so the image will have the staying power that lands in on the front page, in the portfolio, or framed on your mother’s wall.

So, lets jump into composition.

There are some basics of composition that will help make your images stronger, more visually powerful, and ultimately reluctant to “turn the page”.

The basics of composition include the rule of thirds, changing your perspective, cleaning up the clutter, and filling the frame.

There are dozens of other tips, but these few will get you started in the quest for stronger, more powerful images.

To put it simply, the rule of thirds states one should never put the interesting aspect of the image dead center in the middle of the picture. When you frame and compose your shot, think of your viewfinder as being divided into nine small squares, and the premise of the thirds is that your center of interest is on one of those lines.

Changing your perspective: My dry cleaner smiles every time I show up with a story about “changing my perspective”. I have ruined suits and tuxedos simply striving for a better image and changing my perspective. Once I shot a preview for a county fair in a pig pen, and standing up just didn’t make for a good image, but a pig’s-eye view (i.e., on the ground with the swines) was the winning shot. I have been in the ocean, climbing up a tree, or standing on something less than stable, all in search of a better image. Call it what you want, but 99 percent of the images you shoot are shot while standing up. To make a more interesting image, change your point of view. A guy whom I admire greatly says that good photographers “bend their knees.”

Cleaning up clutter: Paying attention to what is happening behind or off to the side of your subject, and removing the “clutter” will lead to stronger images. My pet peeve is power lines showing up in photos; unless I am shooting for FPL, I don’t see why I should have power lines in my photos. Cleaning up also includes paying attention to anything protruding from your subject: trees, telephone poles, and such. Make sure the backgrounds are clean, and thus the subject pops a little better in the image.

Filling the frame: Robert Capa, one of the pioneers of wartime photography, said,“If your pictures are good enough, your not close enough.” This can be interpreted many ways, but compositionally, make your subject prevalent in your image. Do not ever photograph your mom and the Eiffel tower while she is standing at the base and you are so far back, trying to get the entire tower (from top to bottom) in the image. This is bad. Bring dear ol’ mom close to you, while you are still far enough away to capture the whole tower, and then she will be dominant in the frame, and the tower will be a detail in a different third of the image.  Filling the frame with your subject is one of the easiest ways to make your pictures more dynamic. I am a fan portraits that show only two-thirds of a face, focusing in on the eyes and smile make for striking images.

Another important aspect of making a dynamic photo is waiting for “the moment”.

There is always a moment when everything happens and offers the best image possible.

Recognizing it, catching it, pushing the shutter button at that moment will lead to images that you will cherish forever.

It is best explained by the master himself,  Henri Cartier-Bresson, who revolutionized photography by capturing what he called “the decisive moment.”

“Photography is not like painting,” he told The Washington Post in 1957. “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera.  That is the moment the photographer is creative,” he said. “Oops! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”

Stay focused and wait for the moment.

THE LAST TWO PARAGRAPHS WERE EDITED FROM THE CARTIER-BRESSON’S OBIT THAT APPEARED IN THE WASHINGTON POST ON AUGUST 5, 2004.

This is a little something I produced for my buddy Tom while he was creating a portrait for the FireFly Group, a PR & Marketing firm based in Palm City, Florida. This piece was shot with a series of different cameras, including Super 8, a classic film format that offers a unique look that is hard to replicate with today’s technologies.