Anyone know about photography?

Hi Sarah.

I suggest beginning with a good all manual 35mm film camera. Yes, a 35mm film camera, not some compact digicam.

A Minolta SRT-202 with a 50mm f1.7 lens or a Pentax K1000 with a 50mm f1.7 lens will teach you about the relationship between ISO, shutter speed and aperture (aka f-stop). By learning to manually focus you won't become auto focus dependent. My granddaughter will be taking a photography class this Fall and I've been teaching her to use my Minolta SRT-202. She'll be ahead of most of her classmates.

The most important thing using a film camera will teach you is to actually think about what you want to do and how to do it. You'll learn to work slowly since thinking requires time.

I believe digital photography encourages what I call the "machine gunner mentality" - take 300 pictures and hope a few are worth keeping. This is not photography - its simply taking snapshots.

I encourage developing what I call the "sniper mentality" - make one exposure and make one good picture. Instead of looking at a scene and thinking "Oh, pretty!" and immediately releasing the shutter, take time to actually look at the scene. Look at it standing, kneeling, sitting, even lying flat on your belly. Move a few feet to the right. Move a few feet to the left. Get closer. Back farther away. Sure, that flower looks pretty in the sunlight but suppose you get behind the flower? Now you have the sun shining through the petals. This is also very effective with Fall foliage.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/3583620746...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/2758839501...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/drifter45h/3581810196...

Learn to pay attention to the background. Give it as much consideration as you do your actual subject. By moving around a bit you can usually eliminate any distractions like powelines or a dead tree branch or a blah sky.

This book will also help you. "Object & Image: An Introduction to Photography, Third Edition" by George M. Craven.

Good luck!

B.Young and Edwin have very good suggestions. A manual SLR is the best way to learn about how a camera really works. My first (and best) camera was a Pentax Spotmatic II; but that is a little too archaic now; it had a screw-mount lens thread. The Pentax K1000, though, is another classic and has a K-mount (bayonet) lens. The Olympus OM-1 was another beaut, at the time the smallest SLR camera on the market. And later on I owned a Nikon FE2, one of the fastest cameras around (up to 1/4000th of a second). The FM2 was also a classic.

If you really want to learn about photography in depth, avoid all the new-fangled auto-everything (focus, aperture, speed, etc.) and digital cameras. Go for the nitty-gritty 35mm film manual SLR's. They will instill a passion for photography in you that no digital automatic camera ever can.

Hi, I can recommend Nikon Fa, Fe2, Fm3a all are well built cameras which continue to stand the test of time. They dont cost very much and keep their value. They have everything you need to take fantastic shots and have a huge number of high quality lenses which they can be used with. Taking photos should be a intuitive and dont be fooled into buying a camera which has all the latest technology...most of it never gets used and will cost you a lot of money...if you want to spend money on your kit then buy a solid camera body and good lenses. Try ebay,local ads/papers etc.

heres a link to some of the bodies:

http://www.mir.com.my/rb/photography/pho%E2%80%A6

what is inexpensive to people these days? that is your problem, you say inexpensive, but what is inexpensive?

get a Nikon Coolpix L100

Try something with around 3 to 5 mega pixels and a good zoom, digital, very important.Subscribe to flickr.com, its free, and you can post pics there ( protected or not) and meet new friends.