My Photography Hobby

I read a blog post or article somewhere in which the author was talking about the number of photos he took last year. That prompted me to start digging into my own photo activity. This reminded me about my first digital photos that I lost due to a hard drive crash in 2002. I started taking digital photos in 2001.

That was the year Meg was born and the year I bought my first digital camera. It was a little HP point and shoot camera, but it did the job very well. That was the start of my photography journey.

When Meg was first born I took a photo of her every day wearing an outfit that was bought for her. I was in between jobs at the time, so I was home every day. That was actually a blessing in disguise as I was able to spend a lot of time with her and The Queen after her birth. I was also able to stay with her in the hospital when she went back in because of jaundice.

I am glad that I now back-up all of my photos to an external hard drive. I should really put it in my fire safe, but I don't do that yet. I was burning them all to DVD, but I stopped that when I got the external hard drive last year.

Here is a breakdown of the cameras I have used through the years:

2001-2003 - HP (Some more in 2005)(I also used my work FujiFilm in 2003)
2003-2006 - Sony DSC-F717
2006-2010 - Canon Digital Rebel XT
2008-2010 - iPhone 3G (3G, then 4 in 2010)
2010-Current - iPhone 4 (using Hipstamatic a lot)
2010-Current - Canon 7D
2010-Current - Diana F+ medium format film camera

Here is a chart of my photography numbers through the years (These numbers to not include all of the work photos I have taken using a FujiFilm and then Canon PowerShot G9):

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I Received My New Camera

The Queen bought me a Canon 7D for our ten-year anniversary. (She is great!) I finally received it Tuesday night. I could not wait to try it out, so I just stared at the battery as it charged. It was finally ready at about nine o'clock so I popped it in and started shooting.

It was dark, which was a perfect test for the high ISO settings. I started shooting and messing around with different ISO settings and shutter speeds. All of my shots were taken in the house and some of them turned out pretty great after running them through Noiseware. The only downfall is that I only have the community edition so it does not save the images full size.

I will continue trying this great camera out until my trip to Chicago on October 30. I will really test it's low light capabilities on that trip. I will retake some photos around the Chicago River that I originally took in 2006. I can't wait to see how they turn out.

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