How I Started Out

I love getting that question, or any question related to photography because I could talk about photography for days! I usually don't answer it very well though. 

I stumble and it comes out something like this, "Well I.. started to try things. And then I paid for some courses. Oh and I had a book to get to know my camera. And then I youtubed some things, and follow some photographers. And I don't know."

It's not very helpful, so let me break it down a little bit here, in a hopefully helpful way. 

Here it is, my wise words on how I learned to use my camera: 

I tried. I got mad. I googled.

That's my answer. 

If you want more, then here we go, keep reading. 

My first camera was a Nikon D3200. Entry level DSLR. The kind you buy from Costco that comes with 2 kit lenses. 

Why did I buy Nikon and not Canon. Because I heard Canon was more user friendly. Wait, didn't I say I had a Nikon. Yes. I knew that I wanted to force myself to get to know my camera. I wanted to have to figure out what everything meant. That's all. That's the odd reason and I love Nikon. Canon is great too, it's simply a choice between 2 great camera bodies. If you know someone who you might share or swap lenses with I would suggest you buy the same camera body make because you can't use a Nikon lens on a Canon and vice versa. 

So I had my camera, it had a lens. I picked it up and immediately felt confused on what the M A and S stood for. So I stayed in auto mode. And guess what? Auto mode does a pretty good job at it's job. 

I also ordered this book by Rob Sylvan that helped me get to know my camera. I actually opened up the book and actually did get to know my camera. It was overwhelming and exhilarating and humbling.

I found out that A stood for Aperture priority mode. I also learned that aperture meant how big the opening in a lens is and how much light is let in. It took me a bit more of learning, a year or so, to really understand how to use aperture. 

So I looked at the book, I picked up my camera, and I tried different settings. I tried to see what one thing did and what the other thing did. 

I took my camera to my husband's baseball games. I took it to the park. I took pictures of my baby doing whatever cute baby thing he did. 

Then I'd get mad. 

I'd get so mad because I kept realizing more and more of what I did not know.

I would think about what I wanted to achieve and what I didn't, I'd get mad, and then I'd google. 

I'd google, where to place subjects outside for pictures, how do I get a glowing look behind people when photographing them, how do I get blur in the background of photos, how to pose families of 6, what camera settings should I use for portraits. 

So much googling. 

So much getting mad. 

So much trying. 

Then more googling. 

When I felt I could really use some guidance in a certain area then I would purchase a course from a photographer in that specific area.