G
gingerweasel
Guest
I don't want to be overly dramatic but today I feel like I'm starting out on a new journey but before I tell you about that I want to give you some of the history.
For the past few years I've had a very keen interest in photography as a spectator rather than as a photographer. Sure I take my own pictures and derive enjoyment from that but mainly I enjoyed looking at other peoples work. As part of that I stumbled upon talk photography about a year ago and decided to jump on in. I started to learn quite a lot just from reading old posts and getting involved in some new ones - people were always willing to help.
Unfortunately I was also caught up in the whole gadget side of photography, looking at new equipment, longing for some lovely big lenses (maybe a psychologist would read into that?). Before long I'd managed to rack up an impressive camera history for a beginner who still couldn't shoot in manual mode.
I started off with my Canon G10, moved quickly to the Nikon D300, then onto my first Panasonic GF1, followed by the Canon 7D, then by a second GF1. At best I was indecisive, at worst I was a total equipment whore
The problem was that whilst I was rocketing through all this great equipment I wasn't actually taking any photographs. Looking around I think there is a lot of this going on across the forum, people get hung up on what they are using to take pictures rather than the pictures themselves (I'm not judging - it's easily done, I know).
Push forward to a few weeks ago and it hit me that I should be focusing on improving my photography rather than my kit bag. Whilst I'd owned all this great kit I had yet to produce a single image using manual control. I was also beginning to look at the business section of the forum and wonder if I could make it as a full time photographer - this was crazy I had no experience or skills which would justify thinking about this. Further more I didn't actually want to turn my hobby into a job!
So I decided to pull my finger out and start from the beginning, not looking at the finish line.
First I needed to decide on a camera system - and stick with it. Whatever I chose would have to last me a couple of years. This was not an easy call for someone who's gone through more cameras than David Bailey.
I knew that I'd have to pick something that I'd be happy with but more importantly something which I wouldn't grow out of (the last thing I needed was to start camera shopping again). For me I wanted to go full frame, I wanted outstanding detail, low light performance and a camera I couldn't blame for my rubbish images. So D700 or 5D MKII?
I skipped between the two for a while but finally decided on the Canon system. I found the lenses easy to understand and it seemed to have the variety I'd need down the line.
(Big thanks to DigitalRelish for allowing me to get hands on with his D700 - fab piece of kit)
So now I have chosen my kit it's time to get down to the business of taking photographs, learning about exposure, learning how to edit and process, and discovering what makes a good picture!
So what's the point of this thread??? Well I wanted somewhere to document my learning process, somewhere I could post my thoughts and pictures, issues and achievements (a bit of wishful thinking there) and i figured TP was much better than starting my own blog.
So as of today I have a few simple rules I'm going to apply to my routine (small steps and all):
The Rules
To be continued .....
For the past few years I've had a very keen interest in photography as a spectator rather than as a photographer. Sure I take my own pictures and derive enjoyment from that but mainly I enjoyed looking at other peoples work. As part of that I stumbled upon talk photography about a year ago and decided to jump on in. I started to learn quite a lot just from reading old posts and getting involved in some new ones - people were always willing to help.
Unfortunately I was also caught up in the whole gadget side of photography, looking at new equipment, longing for some lovely big lenses (maybe a psychologist would read into that?). Before long I'd managed to rack up an impressive camera history for a beginner who still couldn't shoot in manual mode.
I started off with my Canon G10, moved quickly to the Nikon D300, then onto my first Panasonic GF1, followed by the Canon 7D, then by a second GF1. At best I was indecisive, at worst I was a total equipment whore
The problem was that whilst I was rocketing through all this great equipment I wasn't actually taking any photographs. Looking around I think there is a lot of this going on across the forum, people get hung up on what they are using to take pictures rather than the pictures themselves (I'm not judging - it's easily done, I know).
Push forward to a few weeks ago and it hit me that I should be focusing on improving my photography rather than my kit bag. Whilst I'd owned all this great kit I had yet to produce a single image using manual control. I was also beginning to look at the business section of the forum and wonder if I could make it as a full time photographer - this was crazy I had no experience or skills which would justify thinking about this. Further more I didn't actually want to turn my hobby into a job!
So I decided to pull my finger out and start from the beginning, not looking at the finish line.
First I needed to decide on a camera system - and stick with it. Whatever I chose would have to last me a couple of years. This was not an easy call for someone who's gone through more cameras than David Bailey.
I knew that I'd have to pick something that I'd be happy with but more importantly something which I wouldn't grow out of (the last thing I needed was to start camera shopping again). For me I wanted to go full frame, I wanted outstanding detail, low light performance and a camera I couldn't blame for my rubbish images. So D700 or 5D MKII?
I skipped between the two for a while but finally decided on the Canon system. I found the lenses easy to understand and it seemed to have the variety I'd need down the line.
(Big thanks to DigitalRelish for allowing me to get hands on with his D700 - fab piece of kit)
So now I have chosen my kit it's time to get down to the business of taking photographs, learning about exposure, learning how to edit and process, and discovering what makes a good picture!
So what's the point of this thread??? Well I wanted somewhere to document my learning process, somewhere I could post my thoughts and pictures, issues and achievements (a bit of wishful thinking there) and i figured TP was much better than starting my own blog.
So as of today I have a few simple rules I'm going to apply to my routine (small steps and all):
The Rules
- No more automatic mode, all images will be setup manually - finding the right balance between aperture, shutter speed and ISO.
- Where I go, my camera goes. Seriously I'm going to take my camera everywhere, even to work.
- No more equipment unless I find a need for it. As I gain experience I should know what I'm missing and can buy based on that rather than what I want.
To be continued .....
, but it makes you have to get down to the nitty gritty of understanding exposure and the such .
