Hello from Utah

jedirunner · Jan 16, 2012

Hello everyone!

Found this site via some google searching on some photography topic or other, and I've had a fun time reading through the informative (and entertaining) posts and threads here. The sheer amount of knowledge in the site is mind-boggling. The lack of knowledge in my own head is mind-boggling. And my lack of photography experience is equally mind-boggling. ;-)

Anyway, I'm here to try to learn from all of you, which I've already been doing. Once I have something worth posting for some criticism (yes I can be thick-skinned and welcome the advice).

Currently shooting with a Canon 7D with the base 18-135mm lens. I have a 580 EX II external flash, and the 70-300 IS lens in the mail. That will make up my base kit for a while until I get to a point where it actually no longer works well enough. (who am I kidding -- as soon as I get permission from the wife, I'll probably add a macro lens, and a programmable P&S (G1-X looks very tempting to me) for when I just don't want to (or can't) have the bulk of the DSLR with me). I do have a Ravelli tripod with ball head (I am so glad I gave my daughter my cheap junk tripod after a week or so, I hate having to twist so many knobs just to move my camera a tiny bit!), and a cheap Targus monopod.

I'd like to tell you what kind of photography I want to specialize in, but I actually don't have any clue yet. I played around with taking pics of flowers, bees, my kids, and some outdoor trails we went hiking on. Some pics turned out slightly better than "snapshots", but that was just plain dumb luck, and even now I look at them and see things I'd love to go back and change if I could.

Currently reading material at my desk includes (making my way through these slowly, and I'm sure I'll have to go through some of them 2 or 3 or more times):

David Busch's "Canon EOS 7D"
Bryan Peterson's "Understanding Exposure, 3/e"
Kelby's "Digital Photography Book" 1, 2, 3
Of course, the camera manual and speedlite manual

Anyway, I plan on keeping on reading, keeping on practicing, and keeping on adding to my kit as I find out where I have deficiencies (lens cleaner, air rocket, reflectors come to mind to start). Maybe one day I'll have something worth even posting to CC. But as long as I can already find plenty of flaws in my own photos, well, I'll work on those corrections before I start posting.

And that's me in a way-too-long nutshell.

See ya'll in the forums,

Kevin