garryknight
Suspended / Banned
- Messages
- 12,452
- Name
- Garry
- Edit My Images
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I just joined the forum today. I got interested in photography a little over four years ago, starting out with a Casio EX-Z700 compact camera. This produced very good pictures for a point-and-shoot but didn't give me enough control so I saved up and got a Canon S3is bridge camera. After a while I installed the CHDK hack and started shooting RAW, but I wasn't all that happy about the quality of the pictures.
I upgraded to the Canon 40D and got the EF-S 17-85mm kit lens (now broken) and the EF 70-300mm telephoto, a pair of lenses that gave me everything I needed in terms of range from wide-angle landscapes to close-up candid people shots. Later on I found a Tamron 28-300mm that allowed me to get most of that range in a single lens, thus keeping the weight down a bit. Well, a lot, actually; that 28-300 is light and the two Canon lenses add up to about twice the weight. I got a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (nifty fifty) and it very quickly became my 'magic lens'. A few months ago I found a second-hand EF-S 18-55mm, the non-IS version. Over the years I also collected a selection of filters and close-up lenses plus a cheap Calumet tripod.
At first, with the Casio, my photography was limited to whatever I could capture with the 28mm-84mm efl 3x zoom lens, but when I upgraded to the bridge camera my interest switched mostly to candid street photography, though I'll shoot just about anything if I think I can make a good picture. Photography for me is a hobby; my primary hobby, in fact.
When I started learning (mostly by trial-and-error but with the help of Bryan Peterson's book, "Understanding Exposure") I was interested in technique and focused on image quality. As the years have gone by I've come to realise that, for me at least, subject is king. You can create a picture that is technically 'perfect' and it can have zero interest otherwise. Or you can take a box with a photographic plate and a hole in it - or a cheap mobile phone with a camera - and create something that people will remember for a long time. Think of the photos that over the history of photography have had the most impact on people and if you go back and take another look, you'll find that the technical image quality just doesn't matter very much. It's the subject that grips you.
Talking of mobile phones, just recently I've started using my HTC Desire's 5 MP camera a lot more. Partly for experimentation with that old-fashioned, non-digital, warm, scratchy, imperfect look sometimes known as 'Lomography' or the 'Toy Camera' look (I just call it phoneography), but also because I'm reaching an age and a state of health where the 40D is just too heavy to carry around. It was for this reason that I bought my fourth 'serious' camera - a Canon Powershot SX220 HS compact camera. It's a 12.1 MP powerzoom with a 14x zoom factor (28mm - 392mm efl) and it weighs hardly anything.
Anyway, that's enough about me. I'm very much looking forward to participating in the forums and especially seeing what kind of pictures all of you are getting, and finding out what you all think about photography.
I upgraded to the Canon 40D and got the EF-S 17-85mm kit lens (now broken) and the EF 70-300mm telephoto, a pair of lenses that gave me everything I needed in terms of range from wide-angle landscapes to close-up candid people shots. Later on I found a Tamron 28-300mm that allowed me to get most of that range in a single lens, thus keeping the weight down a bit. Well, a lot, actually; that 28-300 is light and the two Canon lenses add up to about twice the weight. I got a Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 (nifty fifty) and it very quickly became my 'magic lens'. A few months ago I found a second-hand EF-S 18-55mm, the non-IS version. Over the years I also collected a selection of filters and close-up lenses plus a cheap Calumet tripod.
At first, with the Casio, my photography was limited to whatever I could capture with the 28mm-84mm efl 3x zoom lens, but when I upgraded to the bridge camera my interest switched mostly to candid street photography, though I'll shoot just about anything if I think I can make a good picture. Photography for me is a hobby; my primary hobby, in fact.
When I started learning (mostly by trial-and-error but with the help of Bryan Peterson's book, "Understanding Exposure") I was interested in technique and focused on image quality. As the years have gone by I've come to realise that, for me at least, subject is king. You can create a picture that is technically 'perfect' and it can have zero interest otherwise. Or you can take a box with a photographic plate and a hole in it - or a cheap mobile phone with a camera - and create something that people will remember for a long time. Think of the photos that over the history of photography have had the most impact on people and if you go back and take another look, you'll find that the technical image quality just doesn't matter very much. It's the subject that grips you.
Talking of mobile phones, just recently I've started using my HTC Desire's 5 MP camera a lot more. Partly for experimentation with that old-fashioned, non-digital, warm, scratchy, imperfect look sometimes known as 'Lomography' or the 'Toy Camera' look (I just call it phoneography), but also because I'm reaching an age and a state of health where the 40D is just too heavy to carry around. It was for this reason that I bought my fourth 'serious' camera - a Canon Powershot SX220 HS compact camera. It's a 12.1 MP powerzoom with a 14x zoom factor (28mm - 392mm efl) and it weighs hardly anything.
Anyway, that's enough about me. I'm very much looking forward to participating in the forums and especially seeing what kind of pictures all of you are getting, and finding out what you all think about photography.
