Guess I shoulda started here

burdock87 · May 6, 2011

Hey all.... I've posted a couple times already, but haven't introduced myself. I'm Sara, a 24 year old living in south-central Colorado. I LOVE photography, and have only gotten back into it with a Nikon Coolpix L110. I've been shooting with this camera about 6 months or so. My goal is to get a Canon EOS Rebel, but at current time, I don't have the $700 to spend on the camera, plus the editing software.

Anyway, I rent the house of a 300 acre cattle ranch. The ranch hand has 2 horses on property (both gorgeous paints!) and I have a blue roan mustang. Aside from horseback riding and photography, I love to get out and hike and explore.

I'm waiting to hear from the college here about going back to school. I want to start my Bachelor's degree, then take the 1-year online bridge from Paramedic to Nursing, and then finish my Bachelor's degree while beginning my career as a nurse. My ultimate goal is to be a flight paramedic or flight nurse. Guess we'll see!

Well, I'm looking forward to learning from the "pros" here, and continuing my photography and improving!

AUG19 · May 6, 2011

Hi Sara. You don't necessarily need to spend that much. Canon 20d kits like these are listing Buy Now on ebay for a lot less. Good, open-source software is out there too.

burdock87 · May 6, 2011

Thanks! I've been looking at Adobe Elements and Adobe Lightroom, but really don't know the difference. They sound about the same to me. -shrug- Anyway, yeah. Hopefully I'll find another camera soon, or maybe I can put my birthday on the calendar again this year! hehe

analog.universe · May 6, 2011

The commercial editing software available makes that work easier and more intuitive, but if you're really looking to cut the budget, there are a lot of free options around. You may have to work a little harder to get your result, but you can still get it, and it doesn't cost you anything. Check out GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

Also welcome!

AUG19 · May 6, 2011

Or buy a film second hand SLR and zoom for about $100 and be set! Scan your negatives and go full-frame digital that way.

burdock87 said:
Thanks! I've been looking at Adobe Elements and Adobe Lightroom, but really don't know the difference. They sound about the same to me. -shrug- Anyway, yeah. Hopefully I'll find another camera soon, or maybe I can put my birthday on the calendar again this year! hehe

reedshots · May 6, 2011

Hi Sara, and welcome.
If you do get a Canon (rebel or other) the Canons come with a great software package already so you would not have to get anything right away. Light room and Elements are not quite the same, but for a beginner to image editing software I would recommend Elements as it can do RAW and JPG images and is not that hard to learn.

AUG19 · May 6, 2011

Good point. Canon's DPP software. Does the job.

Derrel · May 6, 2011

Don't waste time,money,and effort on a film camera these days. Just buy a used d-slr,and Adobe photoshop Elements,and start practicing. A used Canon 20D or 30D ought to have the equivalent of $30,000 worth of "film and processing" still left in it--even if its original owner has already put $50,000 worth of "film and processing" through it. Shooting film, getting it developed, and then scanning it, just so as to be able to handle the images digitally, makes almost no sense any more. If you have some romantic or nostalgic attraction to film, then film is still a quaint, fun process. CUrrently, used Rebels are $200-$250 with an 18-55 kit lens, from many used camera dealers across the USA. No need to spend $700!

burdock87 · May 7, 2011

I've been looking into used Rebels, and it's crazy how much cheaper they are! And I can't get GIMP to work on my computer. I've used it for a while on my last computer...it downloads fine, but when I go to use the program, it tells me that it can't open anything, and can't do anything. I would love to learn to shoot film and how to process it; but I don't have the patience, the space, the dark room, or the money to do it. I would rather shoot digital, be able to put the pics on my computer, look at them, and delete with no money wasted.

Guess I got a lot of work to do in order to get my "new" camera!