How I got into photography armed with my Canon EOS 500d digital camera

My first words, if you not into photography, start today. I promise you it will be and exciting hobby, and if you work hard enough it will be a profitable one too! If you don't want to shoot the sunset or the flowers or the waterfall, never mind, but just remember, it always nice to have a camera to shoot your birthday, your trip, or even your pet. So just buy one. You not going to regret it.

So, my first digital camera was a fujifilm. I forgot the exact model. All I remember is it was very bulky, 3x optical zoom, have a memory card with 256MB capacity, and produce 4 Megapixel image. It was powered up with 4 AA batteries which quickly drained. Today mobile phone have a better picture I think. (In term of megapixels). I was in Japan at that time. Japan is a very beautiful country. I love the sakura very much. That is the main reason I bought that Fujifilm.

This was my early stage in photography. I did not know how to throw the back ground out of focus, I never tried to shoot macro or even sunset. My main usage were taking snapshot, photo of my friends when we went bowling, when we have picnic under sakura tree and while we were having parties. I was a good buy back then. I will not complain about the quality or what so ever. As long as I concerned, the camera had faithfully serve me producing lots or memorable photos of that time.

You can buy these photos on a print

FREE TIPS FOR YOU:
1. If your camera ever get wet, remove the battery and the memory card immediately. Try to dry it with hair blower (not too hot), and let it sit for at least three days before trying to turn it on.
2. Clean your hand from small debris or sand before handling your camera.
3. Learn how to clean your camera properly and do it regularly.

The camera was broken after a year or so. The zooming part become unable to move and stuck. instead of bringing it to shop, I decided to open the camera up myself and found out there was a tiny particle got in the way. This was after I got small electric shock from the camera inside during my attempts to find the problem. The camera works fine for a few weeks after that. It really stop working when I accidentally get it wet and immediately turn it on with out drying it up properly first.

There are a few tips I want to highlight for all the point and shoot (P&S) camera owners out there (or to those who are planning to buy one). Never turn on you camera on if it get wet, never dropped your camera while the zoom part is out, and very careful if you went to the beach. (sand and salt water are very hazardous to your point and shoot camera. The manual of any camera will only stress out the usage and functions, to really take care of your camera, This knowledge is universal, if you have it, you can take care of any camera. Know the inside out of your camera is the first step.

Reveals Professional, "Insider" Tips And Tricks For Taking Awesome Digital Photos With Your Digital Camera... (Even If You're A Complete Newbie To Photography!)

These pictures was taken with the Fujifilm camera. The quality have reduced significantly because I downloaded this copy from my old fotopages account, not the original copy from the camera.

For two years or so, I did not have any camera with me. I was back in my home country at that time. Then, I bought a nikon point and shoot camera. This time the camera was small, fit to my hand nicely. It also use dedicated battery, which provide enough power, with a SD card of 1GB as the storage. This time, I started learning the art of photography. I read a lot, join online forum and place where people share photos. Comment and critiques there really help me a lot. But point and shoot camera got a lot of limitation when compared to DSLR, which most of the peoples in the forum have. Inspired by their photos, soon I get my own DSLR. A Canon 400d with kit lens of 18-55mm.

Finally I got myself a brand new Canon EOS 400d DSLR. A black sturdy camera with canon 18-55mm attached to it. I have no idea or prior experience handling dslr or slr before. It was a bit frustrating and awkward at the beginning. Don't worry, that is just the "from P&S to DSLR" syndrome. I got beautiful picture while using the full auto mode, but when I tried experimenting with other mode it become a nightmare. That is because I have very little knowledge about using the.

So I educate myself using the manual that come in the box, from online articles and forums, and yes, also from ebook. After the first week, I was able to use the Av mode and Tv mode already. Learning to handle your DSLR properly is not that hard. One of the best way to learn is by step by step example. Once you got your eye on a good picture, find out how the photographer take that picture, what setting were being used, and what is the surrounding conditions while the photo was taken. Then try to replicate those step and get yourself a photo that is similar to it. Before you know it, you can come out with a different version of that photo and maybe a better one.

Good reading to know your DSLR better:
1. Afraid you'll make a big mistake and buy the wrong camera or lens or microphone?
2. A Book To Instantly Transform The Quality of Your Digital Photographs by David Peterson
3. They Laughed When I Showed Them My New Digital Camera, But When I Showed Them the Pictures...by James Wiland

Having a Dslr really change my style of shooting. I experimenting and learning every single technique I came across with. Seeing the picture from DSLR really make me thinks, why don't I buy DSLR earlier instead of buying two P&S camera. There is a huge different in term of the price, but there is also a huge different in term of image quality and camera capabilities. Here are some sample from my Canon EOS 400d, Enjoy!

Please click on the thumbnails for a larger version

A short while after buying and using the dslr I was not very happy with the indoor quality of the photo. The photo was great if there is sufficient light, however in low light condition I have to fire the flash. The built in flash was not meant to be used that way. It will lit up the people faces but the background will become very dark or have a harsh shadow cast by the subject. Later on, I found out the built in flash is to be used outdoor, on a sunny day, when you want to eliminate the shadow on your subject face or when you want to balance the light between shadow area and bright area that are shine by the sun. So, I bought a cheap dedicated flash, a Sunpak PZ42X. I love the LCD display at the back of the flash unit and it works well with my camera.

Some indoor photo with flash usage

Please click on the thumbnails for a larger version

Setting up great pictures takes a little know-how - and it always has by Michael Price
Finally! A Simple E-Book In Plain English Making Digital Photography Learning A Snap !

The lens I was carrying back then was the kit lens 18-55mm. It is versatile but have a limit on it zoom range. So I decided to get my self a telephoto lens. On a tight budget, I bought a Tamron 70-300mm lens. In term of range and picture quality, it satisfy my need. But the lowest f value is f5.6 at 300mm and f4.0 at 70mm. That is not a good value for a low light condition. Even with a flash you can't lit up the subject enough since it is physically far, especially when you are at 300mm end. If you have enough budget please go with the fixed focal point of f2.8 lens. It perform better in low light condition and at f2.8 you can easily focus on the subject while throwing the background out of focus for a nice bokeh effects. If you want to photograph wildlife or sport then telephoto lens is a must.

Please click on the thumbnails for a larger version

My equipment gave up on me. The flash are broken and no longer usable, the repair cost is almost the same as the price itself (since it is a cheap one), so I decide not to repair it and aimed for a new one instead. The kit lens was no longer functional as the auto focus motor (AF motor) was broken. Instead of repairing it, I got myself a 18-55mm canon with Image Stabilizer (IS). I got a used one, but still in good conditions. And some rubber on my camera body have come off. So I decide to trade the camera in with a Canon EOS 500d body.

I was very happy, because 500d have live view that 400d does not have. May favorite use of the life view is when shooting macro. I set up the camera on the tripod, pre-focus the subject using auto focus and then change it to manual. I turned on the live view with x5 magnification on the LCD, so I can see the details on the subject and fine tune the focus manually. Finally I set up timer to release the shutter since I want to minimize the camera shake.

You can buy these photos on a print

Fotopages
At early stage I just sharing my pictures among friends and family through emails and offline methods. It was fun, but in term of improving you will need a larger audience to give comment and critiques. My first choice at that time was fotopages. I uploaded a lot of photos, organized by time it was taken. When the photos were uploaded, there is an area at the bottom where people can comments. I also meet up with a numbers of great photographer and follows their works, of course by adding them as friends. I became less active when the comment area became heavily spam by those who promoting stuff. This cause less positive comment towards the photo itself. My former fotopages album can be found here. I no longer update the contents. But from time to time I still visit the site to see how my skill evolve.

Flickr
Then I move to flickr. I really love using flickr since there are tons of quality photo to browse from. That means There ere also a lot of profesional whom I can seek advise from. The layout is beautiful and uploading the photo is easy. Having a free account limits my storage. I have to resize all my photos and when approaching the limits, I have to delete some before adding a new one. I still have the original copy, so it does not bother me so much, until my hard drive became corrupted and I lost all the soft copy. Learning from my mistake, I spent a small amount of money to upgrade to pro account. Now, I can load without any worries.
The interface also let me manage my photos into collections and set, which is a good navigational tolls for me and the visitors. The comment section also have less spam and people are actually commenting about the picture. Some photographers are generous enough to past a similar picture for me to compare and learn from. So, I have been using flickr ever since. My photostream can be found here.

Some of my photo on flickr, click thumbnails for larger view

Blogspot
I also have a blog, which sadly, not updated on regular basis. I tried to update them more frequent in the future. The blog contain info on my gears, and some great pictures. Some of the pictures were also uploaded somewhere else, some are just available there. I still learning and figuring out how to design the blog and attracts traffics to it. The blog can be found here.

Red Bubble
I am new to Red Bubble. It is an Australian based company which now open for sign up from anybody around the world. I love this site because instead of displaying our works we can have a forum, groups, journals, even a bubblesite for us to participate and create. The community are more active comparing to other photo sharing site. They provide printing and shipping service if someone interested in buying the art. My gallery can be found here.

O.K. I did not always get visitor on my flickr. The best was 500++ hit in one day, usually it just one or two hit per day. But I was very curious because that one hit per day came from this one particular photo has hits almost every day. I never knew where it come from.
But recently i upgraded my flickr account to pro and the stat became available for me. To my surprise the hit was from Google search engine. I tried searching "Andropogon Aciculatus" in the google, the results: The page is no 5 on the search, and the picture was 4th on image search. Then I smiled.


Uploaded with ImageShack.us

This is the picture of Andropogon Aciculatus

No matter what your hobby is, please include reading as one of them. Reading makes you relax, while opening your mind to a new perspective. I prefer non-fiction. Self help and motivational books are my favorite. These are some books that I have read so far. check it out!