I purchased my first camera when I was about 13 and it was a 110 film camera. I took a lot of pictures of family, friends, and pets. When I was about 15 I got a Polaroid camera as a gift, I guess you would say that was the digital camera of the 80′s. Do you remember them? It was fun watching and waiting for the picture to develop. I would wave it back and forth in the air hoping to make it develop faster. Then the picture would not be as expected, so I would take another picture and another…lol.. I have no idea where they all are now.
My first SLR was a pentax. It was exciting to see my first set of pictures from my SLR. Those shots are what made me want to start scrap-booking. The crispness of the photos were so amazing to me. They were so clean and vivid, I was not use to seeing shots like that. However, it did not take me long to get use to it. I would by rolls of film when they went on sale and take advantage of the companies that would offer discounts on developing. I ended up with a lot of pictures, because I was just so excited to see how they were going to look when I got them back.
Then digital cameras came out! I was pretty excited when I bought my first one, it was a Sony, and it was huge….lol…it used floppy disk. I still have a stack of them in a container somewhere. The upside to that is, if my computer crashed, and I had not backed up my photos, I had copies saved on the disk, so it was not a total loss (Yep, that happened to me, after I switched to a camera that took sd’s, my computer would crash and I would lose all my pictures.) I had this camera for a few years, until egg drop soup was spilled on it, so it gave me an excuse to get that camera with more mega pixels.
So I found a Fuji that was a good price (at this time, I had no idea that I should have been researching what I was buying, ummm, that time still has not arrived. Will I ever learn? LOL) it turned out to be an okay camera for the price. I kept the Fuji for several years, and have some very nice pictures from it. Then I got an itch for a DSLR, my hearts desire was a Canon or Nikon.
I have a bad habit of not doing my research, and I am also easily swayed in to purchasing a big priced item, when I am not sure what I am looking for, darn sales people…hahahaha… because…….
I ended up with an Olympus Pen E-Pm1. It’s ok, but it is not a DSLR, it is a Micro 4/3 camera. I have had a couple of problems with it and I’ve only had it for 2 years. I had to replace the kit lens in the 9th month and then the body had to be sent in because of a factory defect. My son loaned me his camera, while I waited for mine to return back home. That was a blessing for me, because I am lost without a camera at my side.
Hindsight – wish I would have waited and did some research. But, it is what it is and I get some pretty awesome shots with my Olympus for an amateur.
I experiment, read a lot of photography blogs and tips. Then I go out and have a great time taking pictures and playing with the settings on my camera. Sometimes I cheat and use the pre-sets, like; portrait, landscape, sports, etc. etc. But, I am trying to get in the habit of using my manual settings. That was the purpose of me buying a camera with separate lenses.
I kind of miss using a film camera, because I would have to get the pictures developed to see how they turned out. Some pictures I put in photo albums, other’s I just filed away. Now, I just keep everything on my computer. I have developed some of my photos, but not nearly as many as I would like. I feel that is a goal I really need to set for myself.
It would be interesting to be a professional photographer, but, I really enjoy being an amateur, I believe it gives me more freedom and it is not as demanding (in my opinion of course). So, now that you have seen a little on how I began, I hope you will enjoy the photos that I plan to share in the near future.
