I know I don't post here so much these days. I guess my head's in a different space.

But I do have a brief observation to share with you that you might find helpful. I have been going through past years files, specifically 2009. That was the year I was on sabbatical leave from teaching at Northeastern. I spent most the of the fall in Italy photographing. So, I've been going through those files, which were originally stored and edited in Apple's Aperture, then later converted and run into Lightroom after Apple no longer supported Aperture (thanks Apple).

Trieste, 2009 ©Neal Rantoul

It's difficult work going though so many files. It's numbing and tends to make me want to go to sleep (whether that's a comment on how boring my pictures are is not for me to say). I need to take frequent breaks and reapproach later fresh of mind and spirit. 

But my point is this: we all have made compromises in the gear we use because we're not able to afford the best. However, in this case, I was sufficiently along in my career and secure enough in my job that I could afford the best at the time I was working. So this work from Italy I made in 2009 still holds up today qualitatively. I am thankful for that.

Italy 2009 ©NEAL RANTOUL

In those years I was using a Nikon D3x, a 24 MP full frame camera that was  expensive but that made gorgeous files. Too big and too expensive ($8000) it was a camera that I grew to love as it never failed and made pictures that hold their own  compared to anything I have done either before or after.

This includes lenses. I had some very good glass in those years as well.  Notable was the Nikon 14-24mm f2.8, a huge unwieldily thing that was as good as the 38mm Biogon I'd used for years on the Superwide (Hasselblad). Added to my kit were the 24-70mm f 2.8 and the 70-200 mm f2.8 Nikons. Perhaps not up to present day standards but good enough and state of the art in their time.

If you are a career photographer it makes sense to work with the best equipment  you can. This for today as you make pictures, but for tomorrow as well, as quickly new work becomes past work and sits in a library of imagery you can't know now is important or not. Going through these pictures I made 15 years ago makes me grateful for the sacrifices I made back then to work with top gear for I can't fault the results.

Sistiana Mare, Italy © NEAL RANTOUL