I'm guessing many camera purchases are based on hope - hope that this new camera/gadget/accessory will improve your photography. That's certainly the case for me (hence the title). I've been enjoyably snapping pictures for years, with occasional success.
For me and most people behind a camera, success isn't selling a photograph in a gallery or seeing a photo in print (not that I'd refuse either one). In my terms, a successful picture is one I like enough to frame and hang. However, my occasional successes would often be followed by the thought, "I bet my pictures would look even better, if only my camera was better". There's lots of variants on that theme:
- This shot looks pretty good, but it'd be really nice if I could print it out even bigger; a couple more megapixels should do the trick...
- Maybe if I had a really small camera I could take everywhere, I'd take more pictures...
- If I bought a tripod, then my evening shots would look even better...
- Maybe I need a couple more flashes...
- This lens is ok, but what I really need is something faster... maybe longer too...
- This would have looked really cool as a panorama... I should get one of those "Advantix" cameras I've seen on TV, They can take panoramas...
If some of those don't even make sense and some of them sound familiar, you're might be where I was a little while ago: the proud (or not-so-proud) owner of a decent point and shoot camera who's thinking about upgrading to a DSLR (if you're not sure what that is, Wikipedia knows everything). After a lot of reading, both online and off, hope won. I'm now the proud owner of an entry-level DSLR.
I'm hoping this blog will be a place to share what I've learned so far, learn more from other folks out there, and a motivation to get out there and take more pictures. Hopefully.
Thanks to the excellent advice (and example) over on Strobist.com, encouraging aspiring photographers to blog their progress (we'll see if it works).
