My New Outlet

If you were paying attention, you might remember that back in the fall I was blogging about finding myself in a bit of a creative funk. It was nothing life-threatening but just one of those seasons that we go through when you find ourselves up to our necks in routine and the same old, same old.

One of the things that this led me to was the exploration of photography as a new hobby. I began researching the art of photography and cameras in general and became pretty interested in all of it. I got up to speed pretty quickly on lots of new terms – SLR, ISO, f-stops, AF-S, exposure, white balance and speedlights.

After looking at a bunch of different options and trying to be realistic about how far I’m going to go with this (my wife is great at helping me remember those kinds of things!) I ended up getting a Nikon D60 with the standard 18-55mm lens as well as a 55-200mm lens, too. I won’t bore you with the details because you either know about all this stuff or you don’t care, don’t want to.

I took a 4-week photography class offered by our local camera store and learned the real basics – settings on the camera, photo composition, depth of field techniques, etc – and since then I have taken my camera almost everywhere I go. I love being able to get pretty decent shots of my family with almost no setup time and I also love having the flexibility of editing and fine-tuning photos to get really nice shots if that’s what I’m looking for.

I know that most musicians are familiar with the concept of GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) but I’m pretty sure that the same thing exists for photographers as well. You get one component and then you realize that if you just had that one extra thing, your photography life would be that much better :) I was able to slay the GAS beast just a little bit over Christmas when I bought an SB-600 speedlight thanks to a generous gift from our elders. I haven’t spent a ton of time with it but I’m already noticing some pretty dramatic differences in the results.

I’m hoping to expand this hobby more and more this year – I’ve already been taking photos for some concerts and had one picture run in a regional newspaper. They have asked me to continue taking photos for them and it looks like that will be a good arrangement. I don’t see this as a money-making venture for me at this point – just a way to get my creative juices flowing a bit more and explore the world from a new perspective. I know that my skill, technique and ability has a long way to go but I am really enjoying being able to experiment and try new things. Having a few little people around the house willing to be my test subjects is also a bonus!

So what about you? What’s new for you this year? I know some of you who read are big in to the photo thing so what’s your one big tip for people who are just starting out? Let’s hear it.