I spend most of my time in the mountains, not literally but in my head. Recently the work:life balance hasn't allowed for a lot of physical outdoor time. I accept this, after all it is a hobby/interest and at present it doesn't pay the bills and it takes me away from home stuff. The required "reset" button has been given a partial push recently but thats another story for another day.
In recent years whilst in the outdoors I have wanted to make the mountains look less like molehills when capturing the views. When I look back at my photos I've always felt they haven't encompassed the scene I remembered. I have been quite happy, maybe even proud, with a lot of the images but mostly it isn't how I wanted to remember them. A tradesman should never blame his tools, however, most of my images have been caught on a mobile phone. Whilst in Chamonix everything I took was on a HTC Desire HD, some I posted on that trip were from other cameras my friends took.
I've seen some amazing photo's on blogs and on twitter/facebook, there are too many individuals to even start mentioning and leaving people out but I'd like my photo's to even be a quarter as good as some of them. I have now invested in a "box brownie" that will hopefully give me that chance. I got the Canon Powershot S110. I have been looking at getting the S100 for a while now and then they snuck out this newer model.
I thought of a DSLR or bridge camera but I want to learn the basics before leaping up to the heavy kit. Weight was the other reason I didn't go for the big lenses, I'm no ULer at the best of times so right now the camera weighing 198g is a good start. From my perspective it is highly specced and should give me enough adjustments to get the hang of this photography thing.
I've seen guys in action, chatted to actual photographers who produce some of the images I covet and read blogs giving hints and tips. I'm still a bit f-stumped! Though a bit of practical application (known as messing about) and a little reading hopefully will give me the results I want.
So the M setting is selected. And now I have to turn dials to adjust for light settings before every click. Hopefully I will become a bit slicker at this so not to miss any opportunities in front of me. I've been having a go since I got it, off the hill too.
I don't want to become a photographer or anything, I'm just looking to improve what I transfer on to the hard drive, and this blog!