Photography is an Expensive Hobby

If you guys are wondering what you’d like to get me for my next birthday, think “photography.” Until about two months ago, I had no idea this stuff was so expensive. I thought that once I had bought a nice camera, I was set. Boy, was I wrong.

Turns out that the camera body (camera minus the lens) is just the beginning. Now that understand a few things, I want a better flash ($), a nice lens or two ($$), and maybe one day the ability to use a flash off-camera ($$$). Oh, and I’ll need a way to carry all of this stuff around so I’ll need a good camera bag (which I just got, and love). Photography is expensive.

Another thing I’m running into… since this type of camera shoots raw (doesn’t compress the pictures into jpg’s) the image files are much larger than I’m used to. I can easily use up a gigbyte or two on my hard drive just from one family gathering. I’m probably going to need another hard drive soon just to accommodate all the pictures I’m taking.

And then one other thing is something I worry about since I’m an IT guy. I know that you should never have only one copy of something you care about. All hard drives will fail at some point; it’s just a matter of time. So I’ll need to have yet another hard drive to keep a backup copy on.

Now, I’m not trying to go professional or anything. I just want to be able to take nice photographs at family gatherings and when the little one gets here. So, like anything else I’m interested in, I’ve bought a couple of books, borrowed some others, and studied. It was through this studying that I learned to appreciate all of the nice gear that’s out there. I don’t want to be a pro, I just want to be good at it.

If you want to see a up-and-coming pro, check out my buddy Bo Boswell. He’s getting into the professional side of things and has a nice photography website displaying his work.