Acquiring new gear: Growing as a photographer, or just a "Gearhead"?

I've bought a few cameras in the last 12 months. I'm currently very happy with where I am and I think I can probably shoot everything I might want to shoot with either my Toyo field camera or my Cambo monorail. I've got four lenses which cover all focal lengths I've found myself shooting at over the last 6 or 7 years (with digital) and so I think I have all the lenses I might want to use.

Of course, I would love an old brass petzval lens but I see myself as still learning to use the gear I've got so throwing anything else into the mix is just going to confuse me and complicate things! I've only just figured out swings so need to keep my gear at a minimum. I did buy a Cambo 8x10 a few months back, which I've only had one shot out of but I knew with my current methods of transport (bus and train) that it wouldn't be a camera I'd be able to get out regularly. The price was such that I couldn't not buy it for next year when I buy a car and I'll be in a position to take the 8x10 out more regularly.

When I shot digital, I amassed a huge collection of lenses for my D700 and it was just getting ridiculous. I'm glad I'm down to a fairly minimal collection of gear - and everything gets used (bar the 8x10) so I don't feel anything was a waste.

The OP is equating the accumulation of stuff with growing as a photographer.
If it is gear you use, then it likely is.
If it is just gear that is "cool" then likely it isn't.
Too many "gear" distractions can even be detrimental, IMHO.
Not to say there is anything wrong with collecting or restoring old stuff---I do that as well---but I try to keep it seperate from my "usin' gear."

i think there's always balance to be sought.

i really enjoy playing with new and different things. i tend to end up with stuff that looks like i shot it regardless of what i use.

when i was in photo school, as i was getting toward graduation, i thought it was entirely necessary to have kit for every possible situation...so i had a digital body...lenses wide, normal, long, macro, zoom, prime...a flash...a location lighting kit...film gear...etc. it was cool to have...but i realized i scarcely used most of it...and over the last few years have severely pared down my gear, and tailored it to what i shoot now. my main kit is a nikon body, a normal zoom, a 50 (too cheap to bother selling, even if it rarely gets used), and an 85, a flash, and a 2-light location kit (albeit with a bevy of modifiers, some rather obscure or one of a kind. lol). and a fuji 6x9.

of course, now that i teach photography, i'm using my students' education as an excuse to indulge my GAS a bit. lol. it never ends. it's only half a dozen or so old film cameras, with a few wides, a macro, and a 135...mainly minolta, with an occasional olympus or canon thrown in. and the kiev 66. and the 4x5 (i'm blaming them...but it's a really tenuous connection...i've really just missed large format for several years). lol

and then there's the leica...but that's a temporary indulgence...it's actually my "new countertops and floors and lasik" fund. >_>


gear can definitely become too much of a focus, but then so can lack of gear. things always seem to swing back when they've gone too far in either direction. i like to try and stay balanced...allowing myself room to play a bit, but not enough that it become about the gear more than the photography itself. i feel like this approach lets me grow however i can, and shed what's unnecessary (much like adolescent brains).