My little silver Rebel XTi, which my dad got for me a couple of years ago when I started commandeering his own XTi every time I’d come home to visit, has served me so incredibly well these past two years. It has truly been my introduction to photography, even though I took about two seconds of a black and white film class at MTSU before dropping it because I could NEVER get the film on the spool correctly and trips to the dark room always ended in crying jags and ruined film. Digital photography suits me; there are no chemicals involved and there is instant gratification/disappointment, which has helped me learn to hone certain techniques and abandon others. It’s all about experimentation, and that’s how I learn best. I’m by no means a great photographer, but I feel like I have a decent eye for composition and color and all that artsy fartsy crap. More than anything else, though, taking photos is something I absolutely love to do.
But I am rough on equipment. And the XTi soldiered through some pretty nasty treatment on my part. I’ve uploaded probably 7,000 or so photos to Flickr since getting that camera, and there are thousands and thousands more on CDs and hard drives. I’ve dinged and dropped lenses, and at least once, my cats knocked the camera itself off my desk and onto the floor. Lately, the XTi photos taken in low light using high ISO had started showing really obvious noise line patterns. These lines were starting to bug the bejesus out of me. So I decided it was time to upgrade.
So I bought a 50D. I’ve had it for a week now and I’ve leafed through the manual and I am still sort of feeling like I’m in a marriage that’s been arranged and there’s so much I need to know about my companion right now but that will really only become apparent with time and gentle hands. Heh. Gross. Anyway. Having a good camera doesn’t equal making good photos, as the saying goes. I’m proving that in spades, as most of what I’ve shot with the 50D has been utter crap. But I’m learning. We’re learning.
I still have my XTi. I’m not sure what I’ll do with it; part of me wants to keep it so I can be one of those event photographers with two cameras slung over her shoulders so she doesn’t have to switch lenses. The other part of me wants to give it to my sister because I know she’d really love to have it. But I’m attached to it, see. It was my first DSLR love and I can’t bear to part with it without some serious soul-searching. I’ll work on that.
In the meantime, I’ve made a pact with myself that if I am going to have a professional camera, I am going to have to start pulling professional gigs here and there and building a portfolio. I’ve shot a wedding (I don’t know if that link even works; pics to come on my Flickr one of these days when I get caught up) and I’m slated to shoot some casual-ish family portraits pretty soon. Beyond that, the possibilities are scarily endless. It’s not a bad feeling, I have to admit.