You want to be a photographer?

You have made it wall the way through my first entry and come back, for that I thank you. This is the first in what I hope will be weekly entries that help someone find either encouragement or information they needed. This week, I am out there looking for all of the people who either have no experience in photography, or have not done it since Cheers was still on the air, the first time. Maybe you do know something, but there is a voice in your head that tells you no one will want to see, or will like your photos? Maybe you do not thing you camera gear is good enough to produce anything that is worth taking or sharing?

TAKE A CHILL PILL!

Enough with that nonsense. You have the desire to take photographs and some form of camera and for today, that can be enough. Note: I will get into the whole take vs. make photographs debate later.

I am not saying that you want to make a career of it, but you just want to take BETTER photographs even. I spent a ton of time with a camera in my hand and the desire to take better photographs is where I really started. I still have the photographs I went around making all the time.

I believe you can even tell by the unnatural way that he was sitting that my seven year old self may have been telling him to model for me. Papaw Larry always has been something of a decent sport to me. I am not sure there is much I could have done to make this better, it was a 110 film camera. Here is a list of it’s settings: On/Off. End of list.

Back to you. You have a camera (probably) but you have been suckered into the delusion that it takes the photographs. Yes, some cameras have more features and capabilities than others. Some lenses are nicer than others, but have you exhausted the range of what you can do with your equipment? If you say yes, do you think you have to spend a fortune to improve your gear? Give me a minute to argue that it is not true.

I made these images a few hours before writing this. They were made with a camera that is eight years old (Canon T2i), and a kit lens that is at least twenty-four, Canon 28-80mm 3.5-5.6 III. It is the middle generation of that particular branch of the kit lens, but I still think the optics in it are great. You will not get too far in low light with it, but that shouldn’t be the first thing you are trying to do anyhow.

This is a screen shot made from my max zoom in on one of the finished photos. That photo is plenty sharp, and the lens that made it can be obtained online for 50$ or less. It is miles better than the kit lens that even my T2i came with (which is not awful). It is a small investment that plenty can be done with…if you practice and get out and shoot. I want to encourage you to do just that, learn, shoot, learn, shoot some more, shoot everyday. The most advanced thing used in the making of these photos was my speed light and the radio trigger, and you can get less expensive versions of those here. It will not have some of the bells and whistles, but with some practice it will give you exactly the same result.

Before you cheat yourself and do not take the photo, or before you spend money trying to get better, ask yourself how much you have studied (these days, information is free) and tried to get away from that little green box (auto settings). Have you tried the aperture? What have you tried shooting at a higher speed. My canon T2i does not have quite as much shutter speed as my main camera, but has a max of 1/4000. Keep in mind my favorite toy is a Canon AE-1 program with a max speed of 1/1000. It has more than most have tried to use. The camera cannot make you better unless you know how to use it.

A friend of mine with a Canon T1i got a gnarly lens today. Canon 35mm Macro with a built in ring light. It has been on my want list for some time. Others seemed to be encouraging her to get a new camera. I say do not. Take that camera out with that lens and see what you can do with it. My first DSLR was this silver Canon Rebel that was perhaps their first digital. There was a storm at my parent’s and my mother was worried that her flowers were not going to survive it. I spent that evening reading online how to photograph flowers, and even though I did not have a macro lens, it did not mean I could not do it. It just meant that I needed to apply some of the fundamentals and maybe improvise with a work light some. I used a 70-300 so that I could zoom in on the flowers and their water drops while still creating plenty of background blur, turned the speed up so that I could shoot handheld, and used a portable work light to give me some illumination. Are they out their winning awards? Of course not. They are still on her wall, and I am still proud of them which I think is important. It was nine years ago and I still remember that learning exercise.

The same friend asked me if I was going to come up with “assignments” for this blog and I decided that was a good idea. The reason I am posting on Thursdays to start with is because I wanted you to have time to think it through and then try it out over the weekend. I suppose if there are to be assignments you need to turn them in somewhere. @nostalgic_vanity is my instagram. Here is my challenge for all of you this weekend. Firstly, google The Exposure Triangle. That will introduce you to the three fundamentals and a basic understanding of them will allow you to have a much firmer grasp on photography than you would expect. Once you have read up on that, grab whichever camera you have, turn it to manual mode, and do your best. GO OUT AND SHOOT! Make a photo you are excited about share it on instagram (making sure to tag me in it so that I can see of course!). GO OUT AND SHOOT! Learn the exposure triangle and go play with it. If you already have a digital camera, it doesn’t cost more to play with it.

Brandon Bledsoe

Nostalgic Vanity Photography

@nostalgic_vanity

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