I’ve been taking pictures for a long time. I remember a relative buying me a tiny plastic toy film camera from a local convenience store at a very young age. I didn’t understand how the film worked, so I wasn’t nearly careful enough with it. My first photos were mostly ruined as the film had been overexposed. But I was instantly hooked by the idea of capturing small portions of what I was seeing in a way that might be pleasing. I did manage to hold on to one of those pictures for a long time, but I have long since lost it. It was a blurry picture of a poplar tree, and the image was also overexposed on one side.
My first decent camera purchase as an adult was a Canon Powershot A40. It was a 2mp camera, and had a tiny screen on the back. It was all I could afford at the time – and I did use it a lot. The autofocus slowly got worse and worse, and the shutter would fail to trigger. I remember the fact that it ran on regular AA batteries was a big deal for me at the time, as most rechargeable devices at the time were terrible. Here is the first picture I took with it:
I got a lucky break at that point – I won an HP Photosmart R927. It was arguably a step up, with a glorious (for the time) 3 inch LCD on the back, and 8.2mp. It did in-camera panoramic stitching, and that feature was really well implemented to my recollection. This prize also included a nice portable photo printer. I seem to recall the model being HP Photosmart A627.
Sadly, my experience with that camera was not great – inconsistent results, focus hunting, and near the end an almost constant refusal to take an image when pressing the release. The printer – like all in-jets I’ve used, is now in the trash where ink-jet printers belong, and the camera is (I believe) long gone to the recycling center.
My current camera is a Canon T1i that I bought after missing one too many Christmas photos with the HP. I bought it with the 55-250mm EF-S IS lens and the kit 18-55mm lens. This has been my camera for the past 12 years. I’ve since also acquired a Sigma DG HSM 1.4 50mm lens, a Canon Speedlite 430exII and a Sigma EF-610 DG Super flash.
I’ve never really mastered the art of using flashes and try to avoid them. I do have the excellent Rocky Nook ‘Mastering Canon EOS Flash Photography by NK Guy – it is a fantastic book.
I don’t have much other gear at all – a LensPen, a small handful of sdcards, a couple filters that I’ve carried forever and never used.
My typical style of photography is to capture what is happening without interfering. I prefer a picture that is captured as outside the moment.
My workflow is simple:
- take a ton of photos
- instantly delete the bad ones on camera
- copy them to the PC when I am able, sorted YYYY_MM_DD
- again review quickly and delete anything that didn’t get deleted in the field
- quick rough crops and edits may be done if I think I have something good, or know I want to crop something away
- then forget about the photos
That last step is the one I need to work on.