My foray into photography

For years I wanted to take interesting photos, however with film, space and the cost were prohibitive.  Well thankfully along came digital photography and it opened a whole new and accessible world to me.  Suddenly my laptop was a darkroom.  I’d been given a copy of photoshop to use for creating computer graphics, it was old, hard to use and clumsy but with time and online tutorials, I slowly mastered it.  I was creating some lovely web graphics.  Moving into editing photos came fairly naturally.

I began with a point and shoot casio 4 megapixel camera with some interesting settings.  I played with it for a year, experimenting with the macro setting, portrait setting and night setting.  It was a great little camera, small enough to take anywhere.  But it had limits and within a year, I’d run up against them.  I wanted more!

So I upgraded to a Fuji Finepix S5500.  Ohhhhhhh some many toys, bigger zoom, more settings and controllable shutter speed and aperture size!  I played with it for a good 9 months, experimenting with the settings, trying out the manual adjustments, it was HEAVEN!  But, like Oliver, I wanted MORE.

I was too scared to try for a full on DSLR, however, I moved up to a Sony Cybershot DSC F828, with more customizable options.  I was really happy, I could have played with it for maybe a year however…. 

I was given a Canon EOS 10D digital SLR with a prime lens.  I’d arrived.  Then I discovered lens addiction!

First I purchased a zoom lens, a 70-200usm.  It’s a beautiful bit of glass and takes outstanding portraits.

Then I got a wide angle lens that still gives me some zoom, a sigma 18-125 usm.

These and my prime 50mm are all I currently have.  Sometimes I long for some additional zoom, but I can do pretty much everything with what I have.

I also invested in a really decent tripod, well my mother did, it was a gift.  It’s a good solid metal tripod rather than aluminium and although it’s a little heavier to carry, the still results are worth it, particulaly for low light photography.

On my wish list, a bigger zoom lens,a macro lens, a good flash unit, a bigger backpack to carry all my gear and a little pack horse to actually hump it around.

I’ve also upgraded Photoshop, to Creative Suite 2 although it’s been superceded by CS3, I am more than happy with it.

The long and the short is, I have enjoyed every camera I have had thus far.  Just because I thirsted for more however, doesn’t mean that with a point and shoot like my original casio that has a few interesting settings, you can’t take amazing photos.  I did.  All it takes is a good eye, a good photo editor and the desire to get great shots.  The digital media explosion has meant that with a little creativity, we all have a chance to take a shot you’d usually see in a magazine.

Over the coming weeks I will create articles and tutorials about creating interesting photos.