Hello and welcome to my first blog post. I will be sharing my thoughts on photography, my experiences, things I learn, my personal journey with my camera and what I’ve been up to.
As you can see I have only really been in to photography for the last few years. Growing up my mum was always taking photos of the family and places we visited but I never really thought of it. I had my own camera as a kid and enjoyed taking photos but I never thought about it as a hobby and soon put it down. I guess as you grow up, if you don’t have the passion, you don’t do anything about it. The next time I picked up a camera (that wasn’t on a back of a phone) was 4 years ago when my girlfriend was working at Glastonbury Abbey. I went to help at an event which was a Medieval Fayre. After I helped set up she gave me a camera to keep me busy. So with a DLSR camera I had never used before, I set off to capture the event, learning as I when along. The more I did it that day, the more I enjoyed it and got in to it. After the event came the editing which is just as important and enjoyable in my experience. These photos were then used as promotional images for the Abbey and out of all that my love of photography was born.
After saving up, and I admit doing little to no research, I went to the shops to buy my own camera. I ended up with my trusty Canon 200d with a 18-55mm and 75-300mm kit lens. This is a fantastic camera body for beginners. Its does lack a few things but like humans, no body is perfect. I still use this camera as with a good lens on, it takes photos of fantastic quality. Whilst I have been learning, I have mainly use the kit lens. Not the best but better than nothing and still takes good photos. I then added the canon nifty 50mm F1.8 (must buy if you’re new and on a budget). I have used this at music events and for paid photoshoots and have had great feedback for the photos I took using this lens. I have photographed a lot of music events/ festivals and for these events I rented the lens. For the events where I knew I would be close to the stage, in small clubs and pubs for example, I rented the fantastic Sigma 18-35mm F1.8. This is a great lens for a crop-sensor with its wide aperture and was perfect for dark venues. For the bigger indoor and outdoor events, I used a Tamron 24-70mm F2.8, another great lens that helped me take quality photos.
As much I like event photography I love being out and about in nature/wildlife and after saving up and going around in circles trying to pick the right lens, I ended up buying the Sigma 150-600mm Contemporary, at the beginning of this year. I’m in love with this lens already and I’ve only had it a few weeks. Cant wait to take more photos with it and share my experiences.
That is a very summarised version of what my journey has been so far and what I have learnt. As I continue to write these blogs I will go in to more detail about what I have mentioned above. I will also talk about my shop and selling items. This side is still new so we can learn together. At the end of the day it is all about enjoyment and having fun capturing the photos you want to and not about which camera /lens is best. Its how you use the camera you have that matters.
Hope you’ve enjoyed this and If you have any questions or things you would like me to talk about message me.
All the best
Rory