I began working my way into photography as a hobby fairly late in life. Oh, I had a definite interest much earlier, but didn’t do much about it, for any number of reasons. Back in the days of film photography, getting seriously into it took some pretty serious financial commitment; I was deeply involved in my career and working long hours; our kids were young and family matters took up more time; I had other hobbies, and there are only so many hours in the day. As with any activity, if one is to pursue it in a meaningful way, it will take time and resources, both of which are limited. So photography stayed in the background, held off by life’s other pursuits.
In fact, it was actually my wife who took the first steps into photography, during a period when the kids were getting a little older and more independent and she found herself with time on her hands. She bought an entry-level film SLR with a couple of lenses, and took a correspondence course (this was pre-Internet) to learn how to use it. I picked up her camera now and then, and leafed through some of her training material, but still didn’t have the time—or didn’t feel a sufficiently strong impulse—to really get involved. And before too long, changes in our lives ate significantly into her free time, and her camera languished in its bag in the closet, mostly unused by either of us.
When digital cameras first appeared in the consumer market, I picked one up at a local retailer, eager to try it out, thinking it would be wonderful to get away from the expense of film and processing. But at that time, digital cameras were quite awful, producing noisy, grainy images with poor color and very low resolution; they were essentially worthless.
But several years later, I found a new digital camera in a store, and gave it a try. It was an early model of Canon’s PowerShot SD line, a pocket-sized point-and-shoot camera that, as I discovered, produced excellent quality images. I gave the little Canon a good test run on an outing to the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, and was very pleased with the results, and from then on, I was free from film. In no time, Wanda had to have her own PowerShot (by now a newer model than mine) to take along on a vacation, and we were a wholly digital family. I worked out an approach to cataloging the resulting image files on my computer, and began the tentative first steps of finding and learning to use photo editing software. The digital photography age had arrived in the Cosyn household.
Little workhorse Canon point-and-shoot, one of several I’ve used over the years, with good results.
Meanwhile, our daughter had graduated from college as a writer and was pursuing her master’s degree in Liberal Arts, with her own interest in photography. Having decided that her capstone project would be a combined thesis in photos and writing, a book to be called “Photographing Language” (if you’re ever at the Peabody Library in Baltimore, look it up), she clearly needed a more sophisticated camera than the trusty old Canon pocket model, and so she dove into the research of exploring the DSLR market of the time, evaluating camera capabilities and features with regard to price. This was early in the second decade of the 21st century, and the model she chose was the then-new Nikon D3100, an entry-level DSLR with a terrific set of features for the price. Knowing that she had put in a lot of time and study into different makes and models before making her choice. thus sparing me the trouble, I followed her lead, and got one for my wife (and me).
With the kids (at last) grown and out on their own, and with a brand new, beautiful, intriguing DSLR in the house, the scale at last tipped, and I finally found my interest in photography taking off. The new camera seemed to offer such promising possibilities, far beyond (so I believed) what the point-and-shoot pocket cameras had been able to do, and I finally had the time—or perhaps more accurately, took the time—to begin exploring the subject. And there were so many things to explore! Terms and concepts I’d heard or seen, vaguely, but now started to actually delve into, and discover what they meant, what they were used for, and how they worked.
Shutter speed seemed pretty straightforward, and I understood what the aperture was—the bigger the hole, the more light can come in. But those funny f-stop numbers, what were they all about? Why, and when, was one better than another? Why were some photos obviously more eye-catching and interesting, while others were just basic snapshots? How do photographers get that cool blurry background for some shots, and why doesn’t my camera do that? What was the significance of that ISO setting? What the heck was the white balance control, and how should it be set? Why would I choose to set that dial to P, or A, or M, or S? What did all those dozens of menu settings control, and how should I use them?
Being a geek by nature, training, and profession, I read the entire user’s manual that came with the camera, and caught a few glimpses of what the camera could really do, but the camera manual is intended to describe the features and controls of the camera; it is not a good way to learn the art and craft of photography. Reading the manual is good, and ultimately necessary, to understand the dials and controls. But it doesn’t tell you how to be a photographer. Just as you don’t learn to drive a car by reading the owner’s manual, you don’t learn photography by reading the camera manual. Without a background understanding of theory and a basic vocabulary, you can’t get all that much from the manual alone.
And so began my journey of discovery. I started reading books—lots of books—about photography. The hows and whys, the terms, the techniques and technical details, the philosophical approaches. Photography is a creative art, but like other creative arts, it is also a craft. A painter has to learn his brushes and pigments. A musician has to learn his instrument. A sculptor has to learn his chisels, and develop the techniques for carving. And a photographer has to learn the terminology and tools, and develop the technical skills of his craft. All the research and study don’t complete the process: there has to be practice, lots and lots and lots of practice. Experiments, failures, mistakes, frustration. Back to the book, read it again, find the subject covered in a different way in another book and read that, then try again, and again. And then the moment of “Ah ha! Now I get it! And it actually works!” Failures followed by successes, frustration leading to satisfaction, confusion resolving into understanding.
Along the way, I decided that I needed a camera of my own, that I could set up as I chose, without regard to sharing with anyone else. I also wanted some more advanced features and controls. So I picked up a Nikon D7000, and gradually acquired a few lenses that I liked for specific purposes, and started to gain a little more skill and ability. As I learned and practiced and improved, friends and kin began to compliment my photos. I joined some photo groups online, and in time started to feel that some of my better photos did not look too out of place among those of more experienced photographers who seemed to know what they were doing. And I was having a lot of fun!
So this blog is for me, to reinforce what I’ve learned and discovered, what I think works and what I know doesn’t, to review the material I’ve studied and practiced, and thereby to help drive it home and make it stick in my head. But it’s also a way to share the many hours I’ve spent in study and experiment, the trials and errors, and the pleasure and joy I’ve gained along the way. In addition to books I’ve read, there have been many websites, blogs, and message boards that have helped me gain insight into the art and craft of photography, and it is my sincere hope that this blog might help someone else who is just getting started, and trying to learn. If you’re already an accomplished photographer, there probably won’t be much to see here that you didn’t learn long ago; what I have to offer might seem elementary and basic. But everybody starts out as a novice, trying to get some traction and figure out how to make their new camera do what they want it to do, and how to make better photos than they do now. If that’s you, I hope you’ll find something useful here, and come back from time to time to see new posts. And please do leave a comment, to let me know what you like or don’t like.
Welcome to CosynPhoto.