Equipment you need

So, let's talk about equipment.  Basically you need the following generic things:

1.  A camera (duh!)
2.  A means to process the image
3.  A means to upload the image to somewhere, even if it is just to print at a local Walgreens (or whatever brand of pharmacy you use).

The devil is in the details, as they say, so let's talk details.

1. Camera

First of all, let me just admit that I have a lot of cameras.  A.....LOT.....OF.....CAMERAS.

In fact, I have my first camera, a 1973 vintage Nikkormat with its 50/2.0 lens, still working like a champ.

I've also got these:

OK, pay no attention to the messy desk.  I'm a professional consultant as well as photographer/journalist, and I have this issue with putting things away when I am really more interested in doing...well....pretty much anything else.

On the left is a Hasselblad 501CM with a wide angle lens for film portraiture.  I didn't look up the serial number, but I can guarantee it is probably at least 25 years old.  I also have a 1956 vintage Leica with a few Leica lenses. I have an interesting story about Alfred Eisenstadt which is the reason I bought the Leica, but we'll save that for later as well.   On the right is my best digital camera, a Nikon D800 from about 2013.  These represent the top of the line cameras for their respective days (the D800 was the first 35mm camera to sport a 36MP sensor, and it's really nice for portraits and weddings, etc.).

But I also have this:

Yeah, it's a phone.  And aside from a few missing controls, it can probably record better images than any photographer ever did prior to, say, 1995.  I know some people will argue that, but we'll save it for another day.

The point is, you can take pretty good photos with just about any camera.  If you want to get really nice shots of people sort of up close, you may want to get something that allows you to control the aperture so you can create that cool out-of-focus background naturally (I know, some of the high end phones allow that now, in a fake sort of way).  If you constantly want to take photos in pitch dark, well, that's gonna cost you.

My suggestion for the moment is to just use your phone and let's concentrate on how to set up a shot.  Having said that, I will talk more about what you get out of different sorts of cameras in the next post.

2. Computer and image processing software

It turns out that you can do a lot of good work right in your phone, as much as I hate to admit it.  The cameras are so good now that they have started bundling pretty tasty image processing software in with the camera app, and you can also purchase even better ones.  But let's say you want to take it a step further, in which case you need

A computer.

You don't have to go crazy with this.  It will need plenty of memory, a pretty fast processor, and a goodly amount of offline storage.  We will talk about the details later, but if you're going to get serious someday, then you are going to need a little horsepower here.  The computer will be used to process the image and upload it to the place where you want to upload it, which for most people is Facebook or Instagram.  You need an image processing program to go with the computer, which we will call

The Program.

My suggestion is Lightroom, but you need a subscription from Adobe which costs $10/month.  There are a number of other programs of varying expense, but Lightroom is the universally accepted standard and if you use it you can tap into a wealth of experience from other photographers. It's also a decent cataloging program to help you keep track of your photos, if you take time to organize them. You can also get Photoshop Elements from Adobe, which does about 90% of what the full version of Photoshop does but it costs less than $100 and then it's yours forever.

3. A means to upload the images

Actually, this is just a subset of #2 above, and if you are using your phone as your primary camera, then it's all wrapped up into a single package.

Well, it probably didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out these three points about equipment, but it sets the foundation for our future discussions, so bear with me.  Oh, and by the way, I actually AM a rocket scientist.  Well, I don't design rockets but I have designed and built payloads.  That's also an interesting story that unfortunately has nothing to do with photography.