I've been into photography for a long time - I just never realised how much, we did a little at school with a proper darkroom (I really wish I'd taken advantage of that some more) and I remember buying my first proper digital camera - spent about £400 on a nikon coolpix 885 back in 2002. We'd had a handmedown crappy one before this one.
I think I've always liked photography because I'm crap at art - I can't draw for toffee, photography allows me to capture moments and things that I consider to be quite arty.
The thing that disappointed me about the nikon was it was so bloody slow - I knew exactly what it was I wanted to capture and when I pressed the button, it thought about it for a few seconds and then took the photo - compactflash was still in it's infancy back then.
I moved onto a sony cybershot p75 a few years ago when I saw my grandmas and saw just how quick it could take a photo, the detail was pretty good and it worked fast which is what I wanted.
I could never get exactly what I wanted on the camera - I could visualise in my head what I wanted to achieve but the 3x optical zoom just never cut it. After going on honeymoon to Tunisia this year and getting some disappointing landscape shots that I thought were going to be sensational I decided to take the plunge and get a digital SLR.
I went down to curries after doing a load of research with my dad and held both the nikon d50 and the canon 350d, I decided the nikon was bigger and felt better to hold initially but preferred everything about the canon, I held the canon for a bit and decided I could get used to it if I kept at it.
A week later my dad bought himself a 350d (I knew he wanted one when we were in curries - due to jessops having a mistake on the website he got a better deal than me and got a £200 lens for free after they took £99 off it twice).
I gave sue the Sony point and shoot and she was quite happy with that - thats until we went to chester zoo and we each had her own camera and she took
this. This picture pretty much changed the whole ballgame - she knew that she wouldnt get much of a chance with the DSLR because I wanted to take pictures with it, after seeing what she could achieve with the right equipment I could tell she was desperate for one so I went and bought another of the same deals from curries (jessops had sorted their technical glitch
)
So anyway, here we both are today, with our own websites and photoblogs and I think we're doing okay - sue especially.
The biggest question I would ask you Tel is "Do you enjoy it?". If the answer is yes then keep at it - we all need something to do that excites and pleases us (oo-er). I've been out a couple of times in the last month, shot off 400+ photos and come back with not a lot that I like or I feel is any good - its all a learning curve and not every photo that you take can be the best in the world.
Just ask sue how I was when we went to Chester Zoo for the 2nd time and I tried out manual for the first time and came back with 300 blurry pictures because I'd not changed the iso or kept an eye on the shutter speed. When I went to Twycross I learned a hell of a lot - ask Ian how pleased I was with the end result of the sealions and how my technique changed over the day?
If you go out a few times over the course of a month and you come back with one piece of work that you think is absolutely stunning it puts a whole new lease of life into it - I love photography.
If you can get to Chester for the 30th you'll pick up loads of tips and hints, everyone is so helpful and I can only thank the site admins, moderators, and the general populous of TPF for helping me and sue in finding something we both like doing together and helping us to improve on it.
Sorry its turned into such an essay
Matt