a boy with a camera

I am writing this due to the fact that I get many photography questions a day and I am more than willing to answer them, yet it becomes kind of repetitive at times. Therefore, now I can just point people in a general direction.

Now, I am in no way claiming to know everything about photography, or be the 'photography wizard' at all. Even professionals are constantly learning and growing within their art and I am no where near that level yet. Therefore, if you do not agree with something stated here, that is perfectly fine, these answers are simply based off of my experiences over the years.

Also, just saying now, the camera does not make the photographer. The creative mind behind it does.

How did you get into photography/start taking photographs?
- Well I have always been quite interested in photography, considering there is always that old saying of, a picture is worth a thousand words. Though my father is where I get my artistic side from, and he has always been into photography. Throughout high school he used film cameras and turned a small room in his parents garage into a darkroom so he could develop his own photos. Upon trying to decide on a major for college, he was very interested in photography and had won quite a few photography contests, and was also very interested in the sciences. Yet at the time, it was very hard to make a living as a photographer and so in order to support his family in later years, he chose his other love, science. So over the years he has totally kept up with photography and still considers it a major hobby. Now, I got into photography about three years ago, it all started with how every year my family goes on our annual ski trip for a week. Don't get me wrong I like skiing, yet sometimes after a few days I get bored and I want something else to do, and the big ski resort we stay at has so many pretty places to take pictures. So my Dad has a nice SLR and a smaller SLR that is still decent yet is just the very basic system. I asked him if for the day I could borrow his cheaper SLR and walk around the resort and take pictures and he said sure. So after that day I just started to borrow one of my Dad's cameras for around a year and a half or more, and then the Christmas of 2008 I asked for my own camera and I received my Nikon D90, I was very happy. So over time I just slowly gravitated towards taking photographs in my free time and now I can't go a week without taking pictures and most of the time I don't even post half my pictures online sometimes simply because I use photography as a release from my normal life.

What do you think it takes to take a good picture?
- A creative mind, determination and passion.

What photo editing software do you use?
- Photoshop CS4
and sometimes
- Lightroom 2.0

What kind of camera do you use?
- Nikon D90, yet I hope to save up to afford
a Canon 5D Mark ii, don't get me wrong the
D90 is a wonderful camera, I just need a change.
They are both SLRs.

What is an SLR?
- SLR stands for Single Lens Reflex cameras,
these cameras are the cameras that have detachable lenses
and usually higher MegaPixel counts. They also have many
more settings than a normal point and shoot camera, and usually
take a while to get use to. To this day I have taught myself
everything I know about my camera and it is just a constant
experiment to learn new things about my camera itself.

What lenses do you use?
- 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6
and a
50mm f/1.8

What is this f/then a random number thing that seems to be next to every lens type?
- Well, the f stands for f-stop. The lower the f-stop, the shallower the depth of field is. The DOF (depth of field) is how much of the substance you are focused on, is in focus. Say for instance you are in a large field focusing on a picture of your friend, and you want your friend to be really in focus, and the background to be blurry, you then set your camera on a low f-stop to make sure the background is blurry. Yet on the contrary, if you are on vacation in the mountains and you want a shot of the entire mountain range, you probably want a larger f-stop, which gives you a larger depth of field. Therefore all the mountains are in focus, rather than just the ones in front. The f-stop can also be known as the aperture.

How do you take your self portraits?
- I usually either hold the camera, or use a tripod, SLRs can get quite heavy, so a desk or tripod is nice. For a while I would just get behind the camera, and place something where I was going to be placed, and focus on that. Then I would set the timer and run into that exact spot, and wait for the picture to take. Yet now, I have a remote, that cost me only ten dollars, so I can just sit front of the camera, and push the remote and it focuses on me and takes the picture. It is quite handy and saves a lot of time. As for lighting, it is always natural lighting from my window or simply from being outdoors.

What mode do you shoot in?
- I always shoot in either A or M.
Which stands for Aperture Priority or Manual. I rather be able to control everything on my own, or at least most of it. Whenever the camera decides on the settings, things are never how I want them to be.

What kind of camera do you recommend getting?
- It really depends on the person, if you are new to photography, or have even been doing it for a few years, you do NOT need the best thing on the market. Considering that could run you around 4,000 dollars or more. The camera does not make the photographer, the talent and creative mind behind it does. A nicer camera simply has nicer perks or other things, yet sometimes they are even unneeded. I have seen many people take amazing photos with very basic cameras, or entry level SLRs. Just because a camera has a huge MP count, doesn't mean all the photos are going to be amazing, it simply means the files are going to be larger which leaves more room for large amounts of cropping and allows bigger prints of that photo to be made. What it comes down to, is doing a lot of research, if someone is serious about purchasing an SLR, they need to take the initiative to do a lot of research to figure out which camera best suits their needs. As far as brand goes, this is another debatable topic, based on each person's needs. Yet Nikon and Canon are the most popular brands, therefore offer quite a lot of equipment and if your camera ever breaks, and you need to take it to a camera store to be repaired, the people there are likely to have the largest amount of knowledge on these two brands. Due to the fact that they handle them the most.

How much retouching do you do to your photos?
- It depends on the photo. I am never and never will be the person to completely reconstruct a certain body part of a person, or add lots of things to their face or other body features. I just find that very fake and I am not here to take away the natural feel of human beings. Any retouching I do is usually just getting rid of annoying pieces of hair in the eyes, or small little scars on person's face. Over all I usually just boost the contrast and add any extra colors or color changes I want. Color changes on the entire photo can give every photo a completely different look then when it was taken in the camera.

How did you learn to take photographs and edit them?
- I am completely self taught. Most photo classes I have taken at this point, simply give me projects to work on, rather than teaching me anything I didn't already know. It is all about just going out there and trying everything. Do not be afraid to fail. I did many times. Yet those failed attempts turned out to be lessons that helped me learn what to do next time. Plus, Google is a wonderful thing, and can give many answers if you know how to take the information you learn, and apply it in your own way.

Where do you gather your inspiration from?
- From everything, literally. Music, art, people watching, reading, basically just the entire world around me. Being creative requires that person to be very in touch with everything and everyone, no matter what
the substance they are focused on is.