First Steps Into Photography

I wanted a pastime activity that would get me out of my home and probably put me in position of meeting new people. I also wanted to have cool photos of myself. Sport is nice but I needed something else. This is why I decided to try out photography.

I decided to get into photography but I had absolutely no idea where to start. I had no idea which camera would be a nice start for a beginner. What lens should I get? What else would I need? I had a lot of questions.

Photography is an expensive activity and I was afraid I was about to spend a bunch of money and the gear would just sit in a drawer. I’ve seen the exact same case with a couple of friends.

The first purchase I made into photography was 11.99 EUR for a Udemy course! Specifically, I bought this course - https://www.udemy.com/course/photography-masterclass-complete-guide-to-photography because these guys seemed legit and it was on discount.

Why not just watch YouTube videos? Because I wanted to save time by having everything I needed to know in one place. I didn’t want to puzzle everything together on my own, wasting a bunch of time just to save 12 EUR.

A lot is covered in this course and I still rewatch certain sections. I think it’s worth it.

I really wanted to try out taking some photos with a camera, before jumping in with a large investment. I wanted to just feel what’s like to go out with a camera, camera bag, get a feeling of the camera size, etc. What happens when you want to take a shot? Is the process all too clumsy?

It turned out that a colleague of mine had a camera that was sitting idle for quite some time. He asked me if I wanted to borrrow it for a couple of weeks and see how it goes. I thought that was a good idea so I took on the opportunity.

It was some 10-year old digital Nikon camera, it wasn’t mirrorless but it was surprisingly decent. The photo quality was good. I took it out to shoot some nature and wildlife photos.

I decided to bite the bullet and go for it. Initially, I was really hyped for getting a Sony A7C (mark 1) camera body. I was left with the impression that the more light you can work with - the better. So I was looking into full-frame mirrorless cameras and lenses with really low f-stops.

Also - I really liked the design of Sony A7C with the silver lining.

That’s all good, but these things are pricey and they seemed way too professional for me.

Eventually, I decided to go for the Sony A6700 which was a nice middle ground for a beginner. This camera has an APS-C sized sensor with 1.5x crop.

My second purchase totalled 1482.99 EUR. It included the camera that came with kit lens and a 256GB V30 SanDisk memory card at a discount.

My intentions were to buy camera equipment on the more expensive side, so that I could sell it faster if this didn’t turn out to be my thing.

I have to give credit to the following website: https://cameradecision.com - it was really helpful for me to decide which camera to go for.

I was hyped up to try out my camera! Although I knew I couldn’t expect much from the kit lens. That lens has really narrow aperture so it was suitable only for shooting during sunny daytime.

Here’s one of the first photos I took, that I actually like:

I like this photo because of the story behind it. I was minding my own business when this cat came out of nowhere and started rubbing against me. She wanted me to pet her and was just super friendly.

I quickly jumped to the conclusion that the kit lens won’t cut it if I want to take stunning photos. So, I needed better lens. I was interested in portrait photography and I decided to go for Sony 85mm f1.8.

This lens is for full-frame cameras, so when I put it on my A6700 it’s like shooting with 127mm lens - 85mm × 1.5 crop. It had a price tag of almost 370 EUR.

Now that I had better lens, the quality of my photos noticeably improved. Even though I’m still a newbie and super amateur, I managed to take some cool photos (IMO). Here are some of them:

I didn’t had a convenient way of carrying my camera around. I kept it in backpacks and other travel bags, but it wasn’t ideal. It wasn’t safe for transport and it wasn’t fast to pull out my camera if I needed to snap a photo.

So I went to research camera bags and decided I’d go with Peak Design 6L Everyday Sling. Initially, I was thinking about the 3L one but that was way too small when I tried it in the camera store. Even though I wanted the gray color, they only had the black version for this size. So this was what I went for and it cost me 138 EUR. However, I also bough a rear lens cap for another 10 EUR so the total is 148 EUR.

My big Sony lens was nice but there was one caveat. I had to be really far away if I wanted to shoot stuff and most of the time I couldn’t get everything that I wanted in frame. This was a bit infuriating in certain situations because I missed quite a few nice moments. That was when I decided to get lens with shorter focal length. I had a hard time deciding what is it going to be and this time I didn’t want to spend too much money.

So, I decided to go with the Viltrox 33mm f1.4 lens. The 33mm focal length meant that when I put it on my A6700 camera I’d get almost 50mm focal length. The cost of this lens was 237 EUR.

Preview mode One of the main reasons I wanted to try photography was so that I could have nice photos of myself. But when you are behind the camera, that’s a bit hard to do. This meant that at some point I had to get a tripod and that moment had came. Obviously photography was something that’s going to stick around for a while so I better have what I need. ​ The only thing I knew was that I wanted that tripod to be compact. However, compact tripods are wobbly and not very secure. If you want a sturdy compact tripod - get ready to spend some money. That’s why I decided to go for a second-hand option this time. ​ Actually, I was looking for second-hand cameras and lens as well, but there weren’t any good offers and the sellers were not accepting counter offers. ​ What I found was an Ulanzi Zero Y tripod. It’s a really stable tripod, it is made from carbon fiber, it can get quite tall and it’s as compact as it can get. The only downside of this tripod is that the screws are hard to reach and adjust once you mount the camera, but that wasn’t such a big issue for me. ​ The price for the tripod was 126 EUR, which I thought (and still think) was a decent price since it was in a perfect condition.

Switching lenses was a bit tiresome - I had to take the caps on and off, on and off. I really wanted some cheap clear filters that would protect my lenses while I could still keep them in the bag without the caps on. I also wanted a LCD screen protector for my camera because I was constantly rotating it inwards and backwards when I was carrying it in the bag.

But what’s more important is that I really wanted to try shooting some cinematic slow-motion videos.

That meant that I needed a way better SD card, because mine was V30 and I needed at least V60. These SD cards have some ridiculous read/write speeds and they probably offer something more that I’m not aware of. But they are also way pricier that the rest of the cards.

I went on Amazon and got a bit lucky because these SD cards were on sale. I got my Kingston Canvas React Plus 128GB SDXC Memory Card UHS-II V90 for 80 EUR - down almost half the price. Also got some cheap clear Amazon Basics filters, a camera body cap and LCD screen protectors. The total here was 107 EUR.

Overall, I spent some good money on my photography gear. But like I said, I decided to go for somewhat pricier stuff so that I would actually have nice things and I could sell them faster if I needed to.

I don’t think I bought something out of GAS - Gear Acquisition Syndrome. I think I bought just the stuff that I needed and a video of a YouTuber I follow kinda proves that - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FS4mufNMiE8, but I stumbled upon this video after I had already bought everything.

Maybe I have a slight regret for not nailing what lens I need. It’s still hard for me to shoot the photos that I want. If I knew better, I’d go with only 1 lens - either the Sigma 18-50 mm F2.8 DC DN Contemporary OR TAMRON 17-70 mm F/2.8 Di III-A VC RXD Zoom Lens.

I might still get one of those at some point, but for now I want to grow into the lens that I have and learn to take good photos with them. Sometimes I leave one of my lens at home and try to make the best with what I have on hand, because it forces me to try different angles, distances and compositions.

The total amount that I invested in my photography journey so far sums up to a bit less than 2500 EUR. As far as I know that might be the bare minimum if one decides to take up photography as a hobby and wants to have new, decent gear.