The first four things to do when you buy a camera

A lighthouse in Salem, Mass during our fall vacation in 2022. It was worth the early morning drives to capture this.

You did it. You just bought a new camera. Ahhh, the excitement. You spent countless hours online reading reviews. You spent equally the amount of time watching Youtube videos and you know this is going to be the one. This is going to be the camera to rule them all. Highest dynamic range of any camera available. Two million ISO and a high frame rate of 100FPS. The worlds greatest camera… Except your first image looks like all the other images you have taken before… It’s fine, it’s fine. The images will get better…. or maybe this wasn’t the right camera. Maybe it is another camera you actually need more. Back to the reviews…

We have all been there. I have more times than not. It took many many years and countless dollars to realize that the problem was not the new camera. The problem is you.

Now, this is not to say that new gear is not good. New cameras are amazing. But they are a tool. They only do what we tell them to do or what they think we should do and in most cases with cameras these days is that they are not very smart.

Alright, so you just bough the new camera and it truly was something you needed. You have opened the box. What do you actually do next to get the best results out of your camera. Here are a few tips.

Tip #1 - You charge the battery…AND you open the manual. Yes, that little book with 100 pages of text and pictures that you can barely see. You open that and start on page one. You read. You read the entire book in the language that you prefer. Trust me. You do NOT know everything there is about your camera. You will be surprised by the amount of things you will read about the camera that you thought you already knew before hand. The manual was designed to give you EVERYTHING you needed to know. This is honestly very boring for most. I find it fun. See camera manufacturers tailor their advertisements to the biggest and the best things the camera can do. You won’t watch an ad about the menu system or what every button does. But the manual. The manual is where all the good stuff is. Learn where every button is. Learn the menu system. These things will be the difference between getting a shot quickly and effectively vs going through every menu option when the time comes trying to figure out where something is. Trust this process. READ THE MANUAL.

Tip #2 - By now your battery should be charged and you are ready to get rolling. Things are getting excited. Pop that battery in and turn on the camera. Now, at this point I am assuming you know the basics of exposure. Aperture, shutter speed and ISO. If not, you def should not have bought a new camera before learning the absolute basics. If this is your first camera, I grant you an exception. Ok, so assuming you know the basics of exposure your goal now is to engrain the buttons associated with both of these into your memory. Grab your camera and sit down and watch some tv. Practice changing your ISO, shutter speed and aperture without looking. Try and guess where you are at and when you turn your dial three clicks one way, what your settings are now at. Get really really really good at this. It should be second nature. Understanding these three things at least, is going to help you when it comes time to take a picture. Don’t spend your time worrying about how to adjust these settings. It should be second nature. Get to know your camera. Get to understand what it can do.

Boston skyline in fall of 2022.

Tip #3 - Turn off Youtube and practice. Ok, so you have read the manual, you are getting a feel for where your buttons are. Now, put it into practice. Go outside in the daytime. Practice your settings. Think about the type of phot you want and attempt to get the shot without looking at your settings. Now adjust the settings to where you think they should be and take another shot. Was it what you wanted… Maybe go home and come back at night ant try again. Push your ISO higher than you should to see what happens. Practice lowering your shutter speed slower and slower while hand holding. This way you know how slow you can shoot hand held without blur. How high can your ISO go before it is too grainy to be salvageable? These are all things you should know. Asking the internet or a FB forum what they they your ISO should be won’t help you. I may say that nothing over 1600 is acceptable but you realize you are good with everything at 6400 or less. It comes down to what you like, what you want and how it fits into your style. The best think you can do is go out and shoot and practice.

Tip #4 - Stay off Youtube even more. Because here is what will happen. You saw all the initial reviews of famous people saying how amazing that Canon A1s Mark IV is (yes, I combined several cameras there) but after a few weeks maybe they now have a video that says “three things wrong with the Canon A1s Mark IV”. You watch it and the famous person says “I really need a camera that can actually shoot 3million ISO and I heard there is a newer model coming soon”… Now your regret starts coming in. Maybe you should have waited for the next model. Maybe the next model with 3million ISO would actually be the one you need for better photos. FORGET THIS. YouTubers, for the most part are getting paid off clicks. The more people that watch the more they make. This isn’t to say their intentions are bad, but they gotta make that content to keep you watching. The truly best thing you could do for your photography is put down the gear and go out and start shooting. The camera you just bought, even the camera on your phone is 100x or more better than the cameras that photographed wars, and celebrities and major human cultural events previously to the last 5 years. Your camera is more capable than the cameras used by every major professional photographer that came before you. How did they do it? They practiced. They learned their skill. They knew their cameras inside and out. They practiced more. The only difference is they had to pay to practice. They paid for film an waited for it to be developed. You have the luxury of just formatting your memory card and starting over. The cost to begin is pennies compared to those that came before us.

There is no amount of gear that is going to make you a better photographer. I do believe that gear sometimes inspires you to go and shoot more but it won’t make you better. The only way to get better is to practice. Don’t look at this post as a defeat. Look at it as inspiration. Inspiration to go and create something that is beautiful. Create something authentic to you. Create something that tells the story of something you are passionate about. Create something that may just change the world.