I've been a serious amatuer photographer since 1977. My husband bought me a $300.00 35 mm Pentax SLR when our daughter was born and I was hooked. I have hundreds - maybe thousands of photos I've taken of her over her lifetime. I cringe to think how many more thousands were discarded back when I burned up roll after roll of film. I would wait eagerly for days for them to be developed and then to my great disappointment come out with one or two good ones out of the whole lot! For years I hauled around (I must give my hubby credit for many an afternoon he did the hauling for me) multiple lens, filters and flashes so I could be sure to have the right one to capture any situation. Then the life of us ametuer shutter bugs got a lot sweeter when the cost of digital SLRs became reasonable enough for us to buy. My first 35 mm digital camera was like a magic box. Being able to immediately view what I'd just photographed and deciding whether it was a keeper or a goner with a touch of a button was just too good. No more film to buy and develop, no more heavy camera bags to lug. Freedom - to go and SHOOT to my heart's content. Then I graduated to more advanced digital SLRs and began experimenting with different techniques and effects. Some worked -some didn't. Then I discovered photo editing programs and took my photography to a whole other level. Those photos that I might have been inclined to delete I now take a second look at. It's amazing what you can do to a not so great photo with the magic of Photoshop! Today I signed up to take a 50 hr. digital photography course at USM. I have the best cameras anyone could possibly need other than a true professional maybe; and I think I take pretty good photographs. I really want my photographs to be better than good; I want them to be great. At the end of the next two weeks I expect a drastic improvement in my artistic photography endevors. I'll keep you posted.
