On being a (moderately successful) photographer

Over a year ago, in late October/early November of 2009, I bought my first “real” camera – a Canon 20D. I was nervous, but psyched. I had always been interested in photography, and before this had been using a film camera (gasp), a Nikon N55. The pics I was taking on my Nikon were good enough, but I had quickly tired of having to buy and develop film, and the camera slowly became more useful as a paperweight than anything else.

I had my new camera for a few days, and took hundreds of pictures. Most of them were out of focus (one of the first things I learned was the difference between “out of focus” and “blurry.”). Many were framed badly. I was mostly taking pictures of people, and was using only half of the frame. The tops of peoples heads were only halfway into the photo. I was using the flash. To sum up: I wasn’t really using my new camera to its full capabilities.

Thankfully, a friend/coworker advised me on a few things, namely: don’t use the flash, frame photos so you’re using the whole frame, learn the rule of thirds, read the manual, Google ISO and aperture and read up on them. Basically, learn something, vs. just shooting pictures randomly. We had an informal photo class at the office with a few other coworkers. It slowly became an obsession.

I actually began learning about ISO and aperture. I gained the confidence to push buttons and use the dials on my camera to test how different settings effected the photos. I learned more and more about what types of photos would look good, vs. not (I finally got past the phase where “every flower I take a picture of will look AMAZING!”).  I actually understood how a shot would look when I took it, vs. waiting to see how it looked in a photo editor. I tested, tested, tested. At one point I ended up with about a hundred pictures of my home-built PC fan whirling around, because I wanted to see how different shutter speed settings produced different effects in the photos.

I was then introduced to Lightroom, and in a few short months, went home for the holidays with a new wide angle lens.

You know that saying, “with great power comes great responsibility”? Since I was now the one with the camera, no one was taking pictures of me (which I prefer). But in taking so many photos, I began to realize that 1. People expect to see the pictures at some point, 2. usually, more than half of the pictures you (read: I) take are crap, and thusly…. 3. you have to spend a good amount of time filtering through photos, deleting, and then editing (and learning how to properly edit photos is as involved a process as learning how to use a good camera).

After a year or so of using the camera, with 3 different lenses, I upgraded to a Canon 7d just last month. The new camera is absolutely amazing, and I’m realizing that I had probably learned all I could learn on the 20d, and it was a good time for an upgrade. Still, I’m now months behind on uploading photos. I still have to go through my pictures from a trip I took to London, Paris and Amsterdam in September. Thanksgiving and Christmas photos are piling up. My hard drive is struggling and I’ve had to invest in a separate drive for storage.

But I’d never go back. I have a new, healthy obsession, and one that allows me to learn something new every day. Being able to capture photos of important people in my life, important moments, even random flowers, trees, animals, insects, clouds, smiles is pretty wonderful.