Photography and me

I have always liked photography... I enjoyed the time when the parents would take out the diaprojector and diases and we would sit and look at all those interesting photos. But taking photos was father's domain and so I never really got the chance to try myself in the art of photography.

I bought my first camera - it was a point and shoot 35 mm pocket snapper (Yashica I think) when I already had a job. It took nice photos but that was that. The films had to be developped and photos ordered and that wasn't cheap. And the fixed wide angle lens didn't allow for much variety in framing motives.

A couple of years passed and I got another compact 35 mm camera, this time with a zoom lens. I took some nice shots with it but once the lab destroyed two of my films (with some valuable photos), I had enough and put the camera away and forgot about photography for several years.

The digital era reestablished my interest in photography and I got my first digital camera - a compact Canon Powershot A620 just over two years ago. That's when my affection with photography really began. The camera was great (in fact, it still is - and I carry it everywhere because it is small and handy and fits in a purse or a pocket) and I snapped photos on every occasion. I had no idea about composition or the meaning of shutter speed and apperture and stuff like that, I simply enjoyed taking photos. However, after about a year and a half I felt I needed to make a step forward. So, a DSLR was a natural choice. I had no previous experience with such cameras so I settled for an entry model and soon (but not without trouble) became a proud owner of a Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi on US market, I think) and I'm still learning to use it.

I take photography as a hobby and have never had any commercial interest in it. I have still too much to learn to be able to say I take good photos. Well, some turn out well and I have an eye for finding motives but I still lack the knowledge and experience. And processing photos is yet another thing I know almost nothing about.