Getting Started

Where to begin?  First, and probably most important, is:  "Do you have a digital camera?"  I'm sorry if I mislead anyone, I was thinking of a digital point-and-shoot when I began this blog.  (See my notes below.)  So, assuming that you have such a camera what should you do?  Pick up your camera and go out (or in) and take a few pictures.  Go.  Right now.  I'll wait.  Really.

Have you taken a couple of snapshots?  I'm serious, even just one photograph counts, of anything that pleases your eye.  Did you say to yourself, 'but there's nothing interesting out (or in) there?'  Alfred Stieglitz, the famous American photographer, supposedly said,

I have found my subjects within 60 yards of my door.

This is an amazing statement.  Think about it for a moment.  Our lives tend to be centered around certain locations:  home, work, school, and so on.  And, due to the wonders of the human eye, the wonderful and interesting things become part of the background and effectively invisible.  Part of your job as a photographer is to look again with a new view.  I won't lie to you, this isn't easy, but it's not impossible.

You only need to look at what you've seen before in a new way.  Your subject may be a person, animal, flowers, or just junk, like old bottles.  You might notice it because of the light, or seeing it from a new angle, or something else.  Remember that the only one that you need to satisfy or impress is yourself.  That's right, this is for you.  Worry about other people's opinion some other day.  For me, photography is a very personal subject.  As I walk or drive during the day, I try to look at things as though I was looking through a camera.  To see how the light, early in the morning, brings out the details in surfaces.

There's a couple of things that I think are important when you start:  Only show your work, if you want to, to people that will actively encourage you.  The pictures you take are for you first.  If the photo captures what you saw or what you wanted to see, then you did your job as a photographer.  (There are times when a constructive critique are useful and beneficial to your growth.)  The second is, print your pictures.  Put them up on your walls.  This comes as sage advice from my Mom.

Finally, I mentioned that I intended this blog to be about digital point-and-shoot cameras, but it really doesn't need to be.  You'll just have to be a little more patient to get the results of your work back from the processor if you use film.