Pulitzer Prize-winning photojournalist Oded Balilty proved that gear doesn't matter in the new episode of "Pro Photographer Cheap Camera" by Digitalrev TV.
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Balilty agreed to trade his expensive gear for a camera fit for a 4-year-old.
Oded Balilty is most famous for his photograph of a lone Jewish settler confronting Israeli security officers during the evacuation of a West Bank settlement outpost. In 2007 this picture won him a Pulitzer Prize in Breaking News Photography.
Balilty argues that it's not the gear that makes a photographer, but the depth of the story and abiding by the photojourmalism rules.
While photographing a car exhibition in Tel Aviv he argued that the best thing a photographer can do is to walk away from the crowd of other photographers. He said he would never settle for the first choice, for something obvious - like photographing a gorgeous car by itself. Instead, Balilty was looking for moments of connection between cars and people, and made this picture:
While photographing temporary tents or Sukkas in Jerusalem, Balilty revealed that he can spend hours waiting for the right moment. In this photo, he needed a person walking in the right spot to show the scale of a makeshift "city within a city" built for a Jewish Holiday of Sukkot.
According to Balilty, a photographer needs to anticipate the moment before it happens and be ready to react.
The shortcomings of the cheap camera didn't prevent Balilty from finding the most interesting people and patterns, as seen in this picture he made in the synagogue:
The last picture was also Balilty's favourite: showing a strong bond between a father and a son while they are fishing on the Jaffa pier.
