The holidays are always a great time for pictures. Me, armed with the iPhone’s 3MP teeny camera and a 12MP Sony TSC point-and-shoot, was ready to commemorate the occasion and maybe even get a few decent prints out. Hell, maybe I’ll actually learn to shoot bokeh or HDR or whatever.
Photography’s one of those hobbies guys flock to – along with cars and video games – after a certain stage in life; in this case, it’s usually right around having a kid and wanting to cherish the early years. It’s also one that’s been widely practiced since the advent of digital cameras and onboard image processing, rendering most shots into passable email material. Like most people, I approached the subject of picture-takin’ from a purely utilitarian perspective: I wanted to etch memories into physical being. My artistic side (admittedly, limited) hated how 90% of my shots weren’t even clear enough for a normal print, and those that were in focus looked aggressively ordinary. I knew there were lessons in composition, exposure, white balance, and depth of focus I had to learn, but every time I read an article and tried to replicate the results, I was met with disappointing quality.
Then I got to play around with my sister’s Canon Rebel XSi. Now, the XSi is Canon’s low-end, entry-level DSLR; even amateur photographers skoff at its performance. That said, Canon makes good cameras, and compared to a pedestrian compact point-and-shoot like my Sony DSC-T700, the XSi takes fine pictures. Great shutter speed, clear colors, and – at least on my sister’s prime lens – understated depth of focus impressed me enough to finally do some serious research on the subject. After pinging a few friends who also recent caught the photography bug, I decided to go ahead and learn to shoot pictures with the right equipment.
Even casual research in camera technology revealed a truckload of information, and understanding the science and optics (1) behind how DSLR’s worked was just the easy part of photography, at least to my technophilic sensibilities. The theory behind taking pictures isn’t complicated, but out in the field, experience would trump bookish excerpts on light-bending prism physics.
In looking for which camera to get, I knew the (paraphrased) adage “You can’t capture a moment when you don’t have a camera” holds true for most people. Knowing that I won’t be one of those guys who always has a giant pro-grade DSLR in tow, my searches were concentrated around smaller, possibly pocketable cameras which wouldn’t attract much attention. To be honest, I’d be embarrassed running around with a professional-looking – key being looking – piece of equipment, flagging myself “photographer” only to take crappy pictures. Cameras like the Canon G11 and the Canon S90 were promising starts. 
But one particular user testimony caught my eye: Craigmod’s fieldtest of the Panasonic GF-1 deep in the foothills of the Himalayas. Here was a guy who knew what he was talking about, using a “Micro 4/3′rds” camera to produce amazing results. Turns out, the camera is one of the latest models of an emerging format that promised DSLR-level quality with P&S portability and interchangeable lenses: it fit my requirements perfectly. Sure, the body and the lenses cost as much if not more than a full DSLR – which would take even better photos – but the compactness and promise of a wide selection of lenses won me over (2). 
To wrap things up: I’m now a proud owner of the Panasonic GF-1 Micro 4/3′rds camera, complete with a prime lens and general-purpose zoom lens. Meanwhile, I’ve been trying to read more on the subject and garner field experience, and the pics embedded in this post hopefully show some signs of chronological improvement.
Will wax more on photography later. Poetically.
- It also helps that my girlfriend is a soon-to-be optometrist. Congrats hon! (↩)
- In hindsight, my first digital camera, the Casio Exilim EX-S2, was picked in large part for its compactness, and that turned out to be a regrettable decision, so… (↩)
let’s go shooting!