Cameras Don't Take Pictures, People Do

If there is one thing you will not see much of on this blog, it’s detailed information about cameras and camera accessories.  Why?  Because I know (and care) very little about equipment.   I’ve always been of the belief that it’s more about who is taking the photograph than what they’re using to take it.  You can hand a three-year-old a $1,000 camera with a fancy lens or $20 disposable camera and either way you’ll just get 50 pictures of the ceiling.  The nice camera might yield some of the clearest ceiling pictures you’ve ever seen, but the photo content will still suck.

Also, I know that the vast majority of people out there have relatively inexpensive digital cameras.  Just because you don’t have "top of the line" equipment, it doesn’t mean you can’t take good photographs.  In my opinion, it’s more about technique than anything else.  Will an expensive camera take better pictures in the hands of an experienced photographer?  Yes.  I think a good camera can definitely take a photographer to the next level, but not everyone can afford that luxury.   That’s why I’ll probably spend more time talking about photo content than the camera itself (though I will touch upon camera settings that I feel are important).

In this post, I do want to tell you what kind of equipment I am using, so anyone who is curious will know what kind of camera I work with.  My old standby and the first digital camera I ever owned was a Fujifilm Finepix A340.  I used it from the time I received it for Christmas near the beginning of high school until this past Christmas when my parents bought me an upgrade.  I may have moved on to a different camera, but I won’t diss my Finepix.  It was my learner camera and I got some great pictures out of it.

My current camera is a Canon PowerShot A3000 IS. I’ve experimented with it quite a bit since I received it a couple months ago, and I like the look of the photos it produces.  Just the fact that it’s newer means that it takes clearer pictures and requires less editing on my part.  I’m still getting used to all the different buttons and settings, but so far I’m impressed.

UPDATE:  My current camera is no longer a Canon.  The shutter button mysteriously jammed one day, so I had to get a different one.  I was afraid to get the same camera over again, so I went back to my roots and got a Fujifilm FinePix JV100 and it has been working out really well for me.  It's a small camera, but I'm cool with that for now. 

My final thoughts: 

1) Though I don’t like to emphasize the importance of equipment much, I still think it’s important to get a feel for your camera.  Use it a lot and play with settings as much as possible.  I’ve found that that’s a good way to discover which settings work the best in a given situation.

2) There is one pretty cool camera accessory that I might be interested in purchasing.  It's called the "Gorillapod," and it's a little tripod you can attach to your camera and wrap around posts, fences, trees, etc.  It's not very expensive and it looks like it would be very handy.  Plus, it just looks awesome.