Taking Photos

The first camera that I have ever owned is the one sitting in front of me right now, my Nikon D40. I picked it up in early March because I wanted to give photography a try. My rationale was that photography gets you out and moving about, and it keeps you interested in aesthetics, light, and the small things that make great photos. Plus, my artistic ability as far as drawing and painting is concerned is about equal to giving a gorilla a case full of Crayola crayons and seeing what happens - I can barely even draw a straight line.

Anyways, I picked up my camera after quite a bit of research. I knew I wanted the speed and flexibility of a SLR, but I didn't want to break the bank on a hobby that might not work out. I ended up opting for the D40, and I've been very happy with it. I think Ken Rockwell, over at my favorite site on photography, puts it best. (I'd also recommend all the other articles on his site, especially for anyone who's agonizing over gear or what they have/don't have in terms of a camera.)

Photography was not something I picked up like riding a bike. I'm still far from being a good photographer. I like taking photos, and I take a lot, and occasionally I get some good ones, but that's it. It took me a while to figure out ISO, shutter speed, aperture, white balance, etc. I'm the type of person that just kind of delves in when I get some new gear - I rarely look at manuals until I'm absolutely forced to (I'm convinced 90% of a manual is common sense). That's why the internet has been so helpful. Also, going to photography exhibitions in Europe and back in the States has helped a lot. If you want to see cool photos (and realize that you still have a long way to go), check out any of the greats like August Sander, Andre Kertesz, or Aaron Siskind, and even newer people like the amazing Wolfgang Tillmans.

Taking photos here in Tunisia has been a big help for me. It aids in the processing of all these diverse memories that I'm so rapidly accumulating right now. Sometimes I look back on albums that happened a few weeks ago and barely remember what happened! My biggest focus is taking photos of friends and people I meet. I think about vacations where people take 400 photos of buildings and statues, and I wonder how often they look back on them (or how often they even could). Ultimately, I'd like to come back with a good collection of memories that I can look back on and even show to my kids one day. Also, with modern technology and all, I can upload these photos to my blog and have my family and friends look at them, and get a glimpse into what I'm doing here. As helpful as text is, photos are a big help with a country such as Tunisia - a country that not everyone can have a mental image in their head of.