Next Steps

it's obvious from the title of this blog that my photographic bent started with a simple iPhone 4. while i still regularly shoot pictures with my now 4S, it was the gift of a Canon S5 point and shoot that really let me start to grow my skills. it had manual controls, a zoom lens that didn't turn into a grainy mess like the 4S, and gave me a tool i felt like spending time with...going out to take photos for hours.

after about a week with the Canon S5 i knew i was going to want to do more than this little bugger could pull off. i began looking at all the great options out there for cameras and, after some conversations with a few pro photographers i knew, i decided on the Nikon D7000.

i didn't want to cut into the regular budget my wife and i were setting up, so i came upon an ingenious funding plan. i started doing focus groups and online surveys and, wouldn't you know it, i had almost 500 dollars in just about 6 months...not bad, but only about a third of the way to the camera and a kit lens.

a few weeks ago i decided to put that money toward paying off debt and just spend the next year or so working on composition and technique. so i ditched the Nikon D7000 and the next day was given...a Nikon D70. i couldn't believe it. it had a kit lens with it, and i used some gift cards to pick up the lens shown in this picture. i'd been thinking about the f1.4 lens for the D7000, but as this f1.8 was less than a third of the cost, it was an easy choice.

i still hope to get a D7000 someday, along with the f1.4 and many other lenses, but for now i am armed with my first dslr and love it. hopefully there will be another "Next Steps" post in a year or two, but i've got lots to learn with this one now.