A Canon Girl

When I was in college I purchased my first digital camera: a Canon digital elph. At the time, 4.0 megapixels was pretty impressive. Now, people have more power in their cell phones. I shot a lot of photos with that little camera. I brought it with me on countless vacations and took pictures of anyone who would stand in front of me. I loved that machine and I still have it somewhere, although the battery is starting to give out.

This past year I decided I wanted to upgrade to a new camera and I purchased a Fujifilm s1000fd point and shoot with 12x digital zoom, a big LCD screen and optional manual settings. The price was right and I purchased the camera without really doing much research. I discovered that I wasn't a big fan of having to use 4 AA batteries in the camera becuase they were constantly running out, and while the zoom capability was okay for shooting food and people, I realized that I wanted to take my skills to the next level and get an SLR camera.

A friend of mine helped me do some research and after doing a LOT of reading, I decided to purchase the Canon Digital Rebel XSi body with the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 image stabilizer lens. My research involved reading tons of reviews of different cameras, doing price comparisons and looking at photos shot with different machines. For the money I could spend, this model seemed like a great choice. I purchased a refurbished model from Adorama in order to save a little bit of money and about a week later I had my new camera!

In the 3 weeks since I got the camera I have taken over 3,000 photos. I've talked to any photographer who will have a conversation with me, and their advice is all the same:

1. learn your machine
2. shoot constantly

This is certainly great advice, and I am following it as much as I can, but there is so much to learn!

How do I shoot in low lighting without a flash?
Which editing software do I use?
How do you form a relationship with the people you're shooting?

As this blog grows, I welcome recommendations and advice as well as information on people I should be talking to, or organizations that might be willing to work with a new and eager photographer.