Photography Fun: Equipment

Before I can start talking about tips and hints and ways to improve your photography, I need to talk about equipment. Not meant as a ultimate guide or anything of the sort. Simply the tools I will be using throughout these series. The important thing to remind yourself is that you do not need a super expensive camera to take amazing photos. Creativity is very important as well. Saying that, there are some things you simply cannot do in a phone camera and understanding your limitations is important.

The Camera

I will try and cover 3 very broad camera groups. The compact camera, seen at the far right, the DSLR with it's multiple different lenses (2nd and 3rd from right) and lastly the ever so handy phone camera. Alls these will perform differently but all do the basic: they take photos. As a note I took the photo above with Rob's camera, which is also a DSLR.

The Light

Light is so, so important in photography and there are many sources that can be used and controlled to achieve what we want. You have the flashguns (above left) that can either mounted on a SLR or off camera (with a transmitter), you have your inbuilt camera flash which can be too harsh so little little controllers such as the ones above in the centre scan be used for. There are also reflectors that can be used to maximise existing ambient light. And let's not forget the sun :)

The Props

Props for me are the fun part of photography. They help you tell a story, but most important they will help you feel relaxed and get a great photo. Don't know what to do with your hands? Grab a book! Feel the background is too bare? Add something to add interest. We'll explore how anything can be used.

So what equipment do you have and use?