Photography Gear
Here I wanted to share my experiences I have gathered with buying and owning photography gear. My first camera during a college semester course was a Canon EOS 10D with a 50mm prime lens. It didn’t offer a lot of functionalities but the pictures were “ok” enough to get started and interested in the subject.
I started taking it with me everywhere I went and slowly started building up an interest in composition, nature photography, urban landscapes and slowly more and more traveling. You get bored in the area you are in, since you have already taken photographs of the most interesting spots, so naturally you start to travel, farther and farther away from where you start, wanting to explore more and more to get new scenes infront of your lens.
After that I wanted a step up in my gear and researched online for what would fit my budget and not cost an arm and a leg. I went with a Nikon D90 with a Sigma 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 lense and later got a Tokina 11-16mm f/2.8 wide angle
because I’ve seen so many impressive photographs taken with it and wanted to replicate them with my own subject matter.
The upgrade gave me a huge boost in motivation and learning the equipment, the difference between this camera and the old one was like night and day. I saw my photographs become better and better and eventually made a small book as presentation for people who visited my exhibitions.
I also bought a 72-inch tripod, battery grip
for my big hands, filters and remote shutter release
which helps in long-exposure shots. That sums up the current equipment I own and enjoy working with.
The best benefit from buying a filter is to protect your expensive lense glas that is exposed without one, besides that some also add effects that cant be easily replicated in post-processing. Here are some examples:
Polarizing Filter
These filters enhance saturation, so colors become more vibrant, especially blue skies and plants. They also cut down on reflections, allowing you to see through water and glass, and reduces sheen off of shiney objects. It removes glare caused by bright sunlight, and reduces the problems that it causes. This is best used when the sun is off to your side and you can control the strength of the polarising effect by rotating the filter.
Neutral Density
These reduce the overall amount of light that reaches your camera evenly across the whole scene. These are also available in gradient, useful for when wanting to get the best shot possible of a scene that has a bright sky and dark foreground, for example. They are available in different strengths and are also useful in long exposure shots, but aren’t recommended for wide angle lenses.