I don't really make New Year's resolutions for all the obvious reasons but I do have some very achievable goals in terms of my photography. All that's required is some time, commitment and around £250 which isn't too excessive.
First thing I need is a flashgun. Photography is all about light and a flashgun just makes complete sense. I'm not talking about any majorly sophisticated lighting setups; just one flashgun to start with. It will open up so many doors for me. I can pick up a used flashgun for about £150.
Along with the flashgun I need a stand to mount it off-camera (and a sturdy swivel head), and either a reflective/shoot-through umbrella, or a softbox. Softboxes are more expensive but from what I've seen they provide a nicer sort of light. At a push I'll just get a diffuser which is cheap as chips. All these things can be done on a budget if you're willing to accept lower quality (which I totally am).
Lastly I need something to trigger the flash when it's not mounted on the hotshoe; either a cable or a wireless trigger. The cables I've seen seem very short, and I've been recommended a £12 infrared wireless trigger off eBay which I'm happy to try out.
What I'd ideally like to do is clear out as much as I can in the spare bedroom at home and set up a mini studio. Nothing too extravagant; a desk/table and some black, white and/or coloured vinyl backdrops will suffice. From here I can do a lot of still life and maybe even try out water droplet photography which looks incredibly difficult and rewarding.
Hopefully I should be able to achieve all this within the first six months of the year. I just need to get my finger out and really commit to the project as a whole. And motivation has never been a problem for me, has it???!
CANON UPDATE
Just as an aside, I used the Canon properly for the first time at a New Year's Eve party. As I was using the slow kit lens I boosted the ISO to 1600. Needless to say I was blown away by the results; with the NR on Strong the noise was negligible. Barely noticeable. I haven't looked at the RAW files yet though so the jury is still out. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
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