Yep. Chad gave me this beauty for Christmas, my first big girl camera! I've been reading about DSLRs for over a year now and trying to learn more about photography in general. My digital point-and-shoot that I've been using for about two years is one of the best cameras of its kind and has given me tons of great photos (literally: I shot over 30,000 photos with it. Of those, I probably discarded close to 25,000. Thank goodness for digital!). I still love it and am keeping it for times when it's more convenient to use, but I had outgrown it. I've read and studied enough about photography at this point to know what kinds of pictures I want to take and what equipment and skills I need to do that. I reached the end of the road with my old camera and needed to graduate to a DSLR. This one is a Canon EOS Rebel T3i and, if all of the dozens of reviews I read are correct, either the best or second best choice for an entry level DSLR.
A year ago I had no idea what kind of DSLR I would want, since the options can be overwhelming and I didn't even understand enough about photography and camera functionality to narrow it down and know what I was looking for. I took my time reading photography articles, blogs, books, etc. and came up with a pretty straightforward list of what I wanted:
- Either a Canon or Nikon;
- Something entry level but that would be able to grow with me, so I don't need to replace it anytime soon;
- Something with interchangeable lenses AND where the lenses are universally fit to the brand (all Canon lenses fit all Canon DSLRs, it doesn't matter if you have different models);
- Nothing overly complicated to use, since DSLRs are complicated enough;
- Something highly rated by reputable photographers and photography publications.
It was worth taking the time to pick this out since I wanted to be absolutely sure I was making the best choice for what I wanted/needed in a camera. Also, DSLRs are not cheap. This is a pretty significant investment, especially if additional lenses are factored in. I've been using this camera for a week now and so far I absolutely love it. It's incredibly easy to use (again, relatively speaking) and I have found out how to do a lot of different things just by experimenting. The manual is really straightforward, the camera itself is sturdy, the battery lasts a very long time, and the pictures (even if you never switch out of "Auto") are crisp and gorgeous.
So while I'm on the topic of this pictures and photography, I guess I'll get to the real point of this post--my favorite photos of 2012. Photography has grown from something I used to wish I could do, to something I took an active interest in, to now something I am passionate about as a hobby and can't wait to learn more about. My goal for 2013 is to keep building on the skills I have and learn new ones along the way. Practice makes perfect, so I expect to be looking through another 15,000+ shots this year. Don't worry, I won't post them all :)
Here are my favorite photos (from a strictly photography standpoint) of 2012:
I realized after creating these collages that one photos shows up twice...it's not because I'm so wild about it I had to include it again, I just accidentally added it twice and didn't want to go through the hassle of recreating the frame with a new picture. Oh well.
I hope you had a fabulous weekend! Are you ready for New Year's Eve??
~Stacy
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