First DSLR: expectations, experience, and actual images.
Antelope Island, Utah, March 2016
First DSLR: expectations, experience, and actual images.
As a newbie, what was your first impression with a DSLR? What were your expectations, your experience?
This is a story of my first DSLR and using it, my expectations, actual experience, and the final image you see here.
My First DSLR
We moved to Utah in 2013 and right from the beginning I was in awe of the natural beauty. Utah is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I was so impressed in fact that when my wife mentioned for the hundredth time that we should get a nice camera, it was a no-brainer decision. I knew nothing about cameras, so relying on the expertise of a BestBuy guy, the camera of choice became the Canon EOS REBEL T3i with an 18-55mm kit lens.
The first road trip
It was March, the snow was just starting to melt and the trees were starting to bloom. With the brand new camera in the bag, our first road trip was to Antelope Island, in the middle of Salt Lake in Utah. The Island is connected by a two-lane road about seven miles long. The ride there was awesome! I have never seen anything like this before. One of the things that grabbed my attention on the way there was the snow-covered mountain on the horizon, looking like it was blending right into the water miles away, like something one would see somewhere in the Antarctica.
Camera Performance Expectations
My assumption, probably like many other beginners, was that if you have a nice camera, you will take nice photos. I knew nothing about making good pictures, or what a good picture was other than I knew it when I saw it. I did not even know what 18-55 mm was. I just saw big lens on the camera, and I thought that I will be able to shoot anything from wide open landscapes to zooming and peering into the window of the soul on bird hundred yards away!
Experience with the camera
With my imagination of awesome photos running wild, I was snapping everything that grabbed my attention. I did not know what the ISO, aperture, or shutter did, I saw a bunch of presets on the dial mode, like landscape, portrait, and sports, so I was just messing with the settings and winging it as we went around the island. After every shot, after every change in settings I was looking at the LCD and trying to figure out what each change did to the image. I also did not know the difference between a RAW and a Jpeg, nor did I have Lightroom.
The images
Once we got home, I downloaded all the photos on my computer. I had a lot of snapshots and none of them looked anywhere close to what I imagined I was going to get with a “nice” camera. This was the beginning of my journey learning the art of photography. This was the beginning of reading a lot of books, studying, taking courses, and tutorials and trying to figure out how to make images I imagined in my mind. The photo here was one of the photos I took that day. It sat in the hard drive for the last three years, buried among a bunch of snapshots taken that day. I did not know what to do with those photos or that I could even edit them, I am just glad I did not delete them. I am still learning everyday and now I am starting to see the potential in this photo and be able to come close to what I envisioned when I saw the scene.
Before / After
The Before: The original straight-out-of-camera image taken that day
The After: this is the edited version
So what was your experience like when you got your first DSLR, what did you expect and envisioned that you could do?
I believe that anyone can make the most awesome photos they can imagine! All they have to do is have passion for learning photography. I hope to inspire you to also pick up a camera and develop your own photographic vision.
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