One of the most hotly debated topics among photographers has got to be the age-old question — Nikon or Canon? Supporters from both sides have all sorts of arguments for and against the two brands. But in the end, the experts agree that it’s not the camera that makes all the difference, but the photographer.

Oddly enough, this is exactly what came to my mind last weekend while attending a basic buttercream frosting workshop.  I know photography and buttercream frosting are two entirely different things but just bear with me for a while and allow me to explain what I mean.

There we were, 14 hopefuls, wide-eyed, excited, yet fearful under the watchful eye of our instructor, a pastry chef with 27 years of experience under his belt and hands so adept at molding buttercream into whatever he wished to create.

We all worked with the same medium — buttercream frosting on standard-issue sponge cakes, tops & sides trimmed to shape.

We were all armed with the same weapons — spatulas, icing nozzles, piping bags made out of triangular pieces of greaseproof paper, turntables, cone holders.

But in the end, it was the artist, not the tool, that made all the difference. After 2 1/2 hours of learning how to make the frosting, how to spread it, how to put it in a greaseproof paper piping bag, THEN a full 3 hours of working with various nozzles to attempt to create several types of flowers, the end results were varied, both in terms of style and in degrees of skill (or lack thereof). The more experienced hands predictably fared better than the neophytes. (Please click the images below to see larger versions in a different window.)

Me? At some point, I was close to screaming when I couldn’t get the petals of my chrysanthemums to stay upright. I’d have to say it was nothing short of a small miracle for us to coax the buttercream to take the form of carnations, chrysanthemums, lilies, roses, leaves, petals, flower buds…

After an afternoon of back-breaking, carpal-stiffening hard labour, I managed to come home with these:-

Not bad for a first attempt I suppose. But nowhere near what an experienced pastry chef is capable of doing. Just take a look at the master’s handiwork:-

Sure, I can make excuses and say my turntable was too low, I didn’t have a cone holder, my nozzles were of poor quality, etc. But deep down, I knew the truth. It’s the artist who matters, not the piping bag or the nozzle. It’s the photographer, not the camera. Given the same tools and same ingredients, the results will never be the same. The tool is just what it is — a tool — to help one achieve the objective. In the end, it’s continued learning, the innumerable hours of practice, and the will to never ever give up that determine one’s success in mastering one’s chosen craft.