Could this be considered as my mid-life?
Without much thought other than ultra rapid researching skills, I have gone from not owning a camera, to owning a camera, multiple lenses, tripod, ancilliary items, a thirst for knowledge, and the sudden realisation that I don’t have a clue how to take a decent picture.
Or what to take a picture of.
So begins a new mission: to develop my photography skills, embrace a creative outlet, and get to work on the fundamentals.
I engaged my friend almost immediately, who with her years of knowledge, steered me in the right direction and helped me develop my action plan, gave me recommendations and links to various equipment and creators, and shared her passion for the art, which is infectious and encouraging!
With this list I began to absorb video after video, trying to gain a direction for research, hoarding the knowledge I have accumulated into haphazard piles, made purchases and wait for the packages to arrive. I have favoured buying used equipment over new, so I can save money and aquire better quality items, and more of them, in order to give myself the best start I can manage, and essentially be at a point where I can’t blame the equipment, so as to narrow down any issues with my results to a particular knowledge gap.
Camera:
Sony Alpha 7 III, 35mm full-frame sensor, 24.2MP, Mirrorless
Lenses:
Sony FE 24-105mm f/4 G OSS
Sony FE 16-35mm f/4 ZA OSS Vario-Tessar T*
Sony FE 50mm f/1.4 ZA Zeiss Planar T*
Sony FE 85mm f/1.8
Tripod:
Vanguard VEO 3T+ 264CB
What have I got to lose? I have tried to narrow down specific areas of photography in order to develop specific skills, and find what I enjoy the most. This will be a long process, I am sure, and had trouble narrowing it down to less than a few different areas.
Landscape and Woodland:
Initially, I am thinking this will be my predominant interest. I am hiking a minimum of once per month with the family this year and would love to be able to capture what we will see along the way. Coupled with this, there are local areas and woodland I am eager to explore, and hopefully hone my skills.
Street:
This is currently more for convenience and to give myself an excuse to use the camera. Working away in London could give me the opportunity to practice low light skills after work (at least currently) and become more familiar with the camera overall.
Portrait/Group:
People. It would be lovely if I could take a decent portrait of the family and preserve memories at a higher quality than the phone camera, and give emphasis on fewer quality shots more than the abundance of standard shots saved to a memory card. Same goes for group shots, parties, family gatherings, friends etc.
With all this in mind, hopefully I will be able to develop these skills, and use this blog as a measure of progress and reference.
Wish me luck?
