So, I did the responsible thing. I am now a single-camera photographer, and I now only have the lenses I will actually use, and we can fill out our budget for the month and pay off some debt while we’re at it. 

And that also means I am solidly out of the event photography space. 

I tried to buy myself an identity as a professional photographer, before I eventually circled around to the vocation I originally wanted to begin with: blogging. 

It took me 18 months or so of back-and-forth to finally wrangle myself out of professional photography. I was low-key kidding myself that the idea of photographing weddings or events with the X-S20, even two of them, was a good idea, anyway. 

And I went back and forth with myself over selling the second body and the two telephoto lenses for a good long while. Even after I was ready to sell them last week, Jared made me sit on the thought for a full extra week. 

It’s not a great thing when the buyer at KEH knows who you are by name, as he did me yesterday.

The gear churning thing has been going on in my case for 13 years. That’s a lot of gear turnover. It was a lot of trying to figure out exactly what style of photography I am interested in; a lot of feeling like I needed to “keep up with the Joneses” of the photography world to prove myself and fit in in ways that never quite happened; a lot of trying to force myself into roles and spaces that aren’t really for me. A lot of wasted money.

A lot of wasted money over 13 years. 

And admittedly: the camera technology changes within that 13-year period have been head-spinning. When I started trying to justify camera purchases back in 2012 or so, other local photographers I knew looked down on me because I gravitated toward mirrorless cameras. I definitely felt less-than on more occasions than I can count even though I loved my gear. 

It’s still pretty funny to me that, when I was gravitating toward mirrorless immediately upon getting into photography in 2011, the rest of the photography world is finally into it, too and DSLR’s are mostly ancient technology now. 

I did learn a lot the hard way, and I’m trying to be smarter now. 

I kept a single X-S20 body, the XF 16-55mm f2.8 II, the Viltrox Pro 27mm f1.2, and the XF 50mm f1 lenses. I still have at least 4 Minolta vintage lenses and 2 Cinelux projection lenses too, including the yummy 85mm. I still have my Godox V1F flash. 

And I just decided I don’t need longer lenses. I don’t enjoy wildlife photography; I’m not physically in the shape to do events anymore. Documentary photography was my first passion and if I’d trusted myself way back in 2012, that’s all I ever would have stuck with to begin with. I can photograph the ducks with the 50mm f1. The 16-55mm f2.8 II has been a more-than-adequate replacement not only for the 16-50mm f2.8-4.8 it replaced, but also it reminds me just enough of my old GF 45-100mm f4 but with the bonus of closer focusing that finally, I do not regret the downgrade back to X Series from GFX. And the Viltrox 27mm f1.2 and XF 50mm f1 definitely make up for the medium format bokeh I lost. 

Live and learn. I’ve done plenty of that. Jared says none of it was wasted; I learned my tools and photography while I was at it. The expensive way, but I did learn my tools. He’s not wrong there. 

Jared is way kinder than I deserve. There was actually gracious plenty of embarrassing waste. 

As a blogger now, I do not need every focal length in the world to tell my stories. I need the right tools. And I’ve got pretty stellar ones. 

And as for the remaining X-S20: We are making our peace. I’m getting used to the lightness of the X-S20 and the 26mp sensor, and I even finally figured out how to not hate the ISO button on top. I have a silicone skin on my X-S20 so it doesn’t feel so plasticky, which is the worst of the problems from downgrading from the flagship Fuji bodies. 

I do not need flagship camera bodies moving forward. I just don’t. I didn’t need them to begin with. I don’t spend time out in the elements; I won’t be doing event photography. Camera technology and the variety of cameras available now in 2026 means that it doesn’t require the flagship camera to have even the latest technology in ways that were required a decade ago. Thank goodness. The X-S20 is even fine for video. The X-S line will be super-sufficient moving forward. 

It’s not quite true that I am a single-camera photographer, either: I still have the Minolta X-E5 that my parents gave me, that they bought to take pictures of me when I was born. And the Yashica Mat-124G that I found on shopgoodwill.com in 2018 or so. And I have a variety of point and shoots that belonged to my grandfather in the 1980s probably, and I still have, in working order, his Ansco Shur-Flash from the 1960s. 

The film cameras might come out more often now, actually, now that I am more interested in photography for personal purposes. 

Trying to be a grown-up about a lot of things these days. It only took nearly 47 years. Too long, but got to start somewhere.