Learning Curves

BY SUZANNE WILLIAMS

Well, I finally did it. I bought a DSLR. I am excited; don't get me wrong. However, what has happened is exactly what I expected. I am back, in some ways, to being a beginner. There is now a learning curve between the knowledge I have acquired over the last ten years, and the knowledge I am lacking.

I keep asking myself how it will change me, as a photographer and a writer. I guess time will only tell.

Mushroom

My last camera never did sit right with me. You know how that is. It's like the time my husband and I bought a new car only to trade it a year later because we neither one liked it. I was finished with that camera not too long after I purchased it. If I'd had foresight, I would have returned it.

In the long run, I think it did damage to my photography. Oh, I took some great pictures with it. But unlike it's predecessor, it had less of a photographic range to work with. I equate it to taking photos on a leash. I could only go so far before I ran out of options. As time passed, I felt this more and more.

Why do we do that to ourselves? Why do we buy certain things only to discover it really isn't what we want after all? What happens between the shiny catalog advertisement and the actual owning of the object? You know, you buy the new pair of pants and then your spouse or a friend makes one comment and you never wear them again. That's kind of how I felt about that camera.

My husband suggested I sell it. He loves to sell things. My response was, "I wouldn't sell that camera to my worst friend." (Not that I have a worst friend.) So instead, I have buried it back in the closet. I think somehow it'll do its best work there.

Monarch Butterfly

I have now so much to learn, and I am looking forward to it. I pinch myself sometimes to see if I'm not dreaming, that I really CAN take that shot and it will turn out. My brain has yet to adjust. But I suspect when all is said and done, I'll adapt just fine.

After all, my philosophy hasn't changed. I still believe that anyone can make great photographs, no matter what camera they are using. Well, perhaps not if they have the one I just got rid of...

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Suzanne Williams Photography
Florida, USA

Suzanne Williams is a native Floridian, wife, and mother, with a penchant for spelling anything, who happens to love photography.