The Twelve Volumes of Military Strategy: Photography Equipment and Technology

Author: Zhao Jia
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-01-01
Features: This book uses simple and easy-to-understand language to analyze key issues in photography equipment and technology from sixteen major directions. For example: chatting about top-tier lenses, the secrets of travel photographers, advanced knowledge of exposure and metering, what camera model, lens, and film you need to bring when shooting outdoors, how to compose and use lighting, how to use close-up and macro shots at home, whether to use a traditional DSLR or a digital camera, and how to process images in post-production. You can find fascinating answers to all these questions in the book. I greatly admire the editors of China Photography magazine for having the courage to ask me to write the column The Twelve Military Classics. The idea for this column began in early 2004 with the redesign of China Photography. This fresh redesign made China Photography richer and gave me the opportunity to contribute articles with a completely different style from my usual work, and that too for an entire year as a column.
Actually, I am not an expert in equipment; I only focus on equipment that is practical for me or that I enjoy. I am also not a technical expert; my understanding of technology only allows me to practice some of the images I can imagine. However, I have extremely high standards for both equipment and technology. For example, I believe that for every subject, there is a camera that is particularly suited to shooting it, and it is perfectly normal for me to buy a complete set of equipment specifically for a topic. In terms of technology, my requirements are even stricter than those of my clients. The importance of equipment and technology is often not truly recognized, and many people find excuses to avoid mastering them—often under the guise of photography. Of course, photography has many fields and levels. Some images can be achieved without precise control, but essentially, understanding equipment and technology is as important for photographers as grammar and rhetoric are for writers. Without it, while it may not prevent you from creating unique sentences, it will hinder you from maintaining long-term and extensive creative work.
It should also be clarified that the concept of being strict does not mean extravagance or complexity. Stricter standards serve your needs, and these needs can range from extreme refinement to complete simplicity. Understanding equipment and technology is a helpful bridge to the world of photographic freedom. I always enjoy a happy life in photography and dislike the ascetic attitude of shooting. Photography has brought me much joy and enjoyment to my life, including the freedom to shoot topics I love and the leisure to experiment with different equipment or shooting methods and their impact on images. Since I enjoy communicating with people, I often take the time to share my views in various places when I have free time. Perhaps because of my relaxed attitude, some people enjoy my articles. Of course, I am well aware that as a photographer, writing such texts has no special significance. However, I understand that for many people, photography is the best way to gain freedom from life, and resolving their confusion about photography as early as possible is beneficial.
I am often asked many questions about equipment and photographic techniques by photographers or photography enthusiasts. In fact, most of their confusion is easily solvable and repetitive, so I have always wanted to create a series of articles on this topic to explain some issues in an accessible way. This led to the creation of The Twelve Military Classics. Although The Twelve Military Classics has always been under the "Technical Archives" section, before starting to write, I communicated with the editors that The Twelve Military Classics would not be just articles about equipment or techniques. It would cover many aspects of photography. While some readers highly value the sections I write about equipment and techniques, the contented between them—the things that discuss the essence of photography—are the very reasons I wrote them.
A significant portion of Chinese photographers have not had the opportunity to explore their photographic talent. As an art that lives for truth and intersects closely with time, Chinese photography sometimes seems to leave history full of regrets. Perhaps the economy has not yet developed to the point where society values artistic development enough, so photographers are mostly busy earning a living and rarely consider their contributions to photography. Photography enthusiasts should be pure practitioners of images, but imitating salon competition works blindly has wasted their talent. The constraints of Chinese photographers may not only lie in their backwardness in technology and equipment, so The Twelve Military Classics has deliberately included many content related to photographic attitude and concepts. If everyone thinks about this a little, I will be very happy.
To honor the long-term readers of China Photography magazine, this book includes much additional content based on the magazine version. Each volume has been updated, and the original two volumes, Behind Murphy’s Law and Sharp Tools, have been replaced with two new articles. This may be more interesting, but perhaps some people prefer the old articles, so they are now included as appendices at the end of the book. Another article, A Dream of a Lifetime, is also one of my favorites. It was originally a backup article but is now also included at the end.
In fact, many artistic magazines with taste abroad often lack commercial opportunities and rely on artistic sponsors or foundation grants to sustain themselves. However, this is not possible in China, so China Photography has no choice but to continue working hard on distribution. Some of the content needs to be particularly useful or interesting to increase distribution and attract advertising. I am very clear that the purpose of my articles is to attract readers and help the magazine sell better, allowing it to publish more truly artistic works without commercial value. In that case, it is like the green leaves that complement the red flowers. I hope that when you read The Twelve Military Classics, you will find it beneficial. But for some people, these green leaves are dispensable, because the core of photography is the image, and it is a very broad field of art. Engaging in any category within it and delving deep can make you a good photographer and artist. Art is certainly without fixed rules, and having good equipment or good technology does not guarantee that you can take good pictures. Similarly, in many cases, good images have little to do with complex equipment or complex technology.
"The more you think about equipment, the less you often think about photography itself." I hope that when you close this book, you remember this sentence.