Photography: A World of Possibilities.

What an interesting hobby photography is. It is everything art is plus more, much more.

I was bitten by this rather ubiquitous art form while doing research for an online shop that is slowly getting itself of the ground. The range of camera paraphernalia that one has to choose from boggles the mind. Boggling the mind is actually putting it mildly. And that is even before one gets to take a photo of something that the minds eye see as emotionally attractive.

On the camera front, the choices are enormous but mostly controlled. Nikon or Cannon, Pentax or Lomo, Sony or Kodak. The variations are quite painful to the novice photographer, but it will mostly come down to quality, price and what effects one desires from the light capturing machine of choice. The most difficult part for me was deciding on the amount of Mega- pixels my prospective camera can capture images at. Lets just say that I am still flabbergasted.

The next catch comes when one needs to choose a lens to attach to the body of camera. Choice is part of life but wow, when it comes to choosing a lens, the possibilities are endless. What usually ends up happening is that one will settle for a middle of the road lens assembly and grow the arsenal from there.

Modern cameras are mostly equipped with various capturing settings of which one will be AUTO. This setting allows one to start shooting immediately - this is unlike the photographic machines of old where patience was a pre-requisite: Visualise the shot, prepare the settings, aim, shoot and hope that the settings were befitting the shot at hand; or that the roll-of-film was not defective. Then there was the developing processes to account for…

Once I settled on a camera with , the correct Mega-pixels and a lens, I needed to choose a camera case, a memory card (to extend the amount of photos I can take in one sitting,) a flash unit and a tripod; and not forgetting the blasted batteries (normal or rechargeable!?)

Finally I paid and left the shop full of apprehension and trepidations all rolled into one. Where to begin? What to Shoot? Did I buy the right camera? Must get the batteries charged…endless thoughts of doubts and misgivings.

But I learnt quickly. The best way to learn is to shoot, shoot and shoot some more. Having digital technology at one’s beck-and-call means that a photograph can be viewed immediately and settings adjusted on the spot, thus alleviating the patience paradox of old.


Now what do I do with my Kodak mik-and-druk?