Moving From Point Shoot to DSLR

This beautiful little girl pictured above is the reason that I got into photography.  While my wife was pregnant we figured that we should invest in a descent camera to capture the moments in this new phase of our life as parents.  

So we went camera shopping at Wolf Camera.  The sales guy was extremely helpful in helping us decide on a point and shoot or a more expensive entry level digital single lens reflex (DSLR) camera.  That day we walked out of the camera store with a Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ5.  This was a pretty nice point and shoot camera to travel around with when you're on the go, but when it comes to fast moving objects, namely people, it really doesn't cut it.  Here are a couple of images from this camera, which now needs to be thrown in the trash because the images are weird now.  I think it may have sat in the car too many times out in the Texas heat. (Tip:  Never leave a digital camera in a hot car)

Finally, fed up with looking at various blogs where regular people were seemingly taking amazing pictures, a couple of months later we decided to bite the bullet and upgrade to a DSLR camera.  So we went out and purchased a Gold Edition Nikon D60, which retailed at the time for about $600 and also purchased the 55 - 200mm non VR lens.  I'm not gonna lie, at first I really couldn't tell the difference between the images from the Panasonic point and shoot and the new D60 that i purchased.  That's because A) I was shooting in Auto and B) I didn't really know what I was doing.   But after a couple of weeks, I finally got some images that I could be rather proud of.  

We were getting ready to take our daughter to the aquarium and I decided to snap off a couple of images in our usual crease in the couch.  This was the first time that I saw the power and speed of a DSLR do it's thing.  Now that I'm looking at the camera settings, I can't believe that I was at 1/20 sec.  I think that I was impressed with the fact that I got this little bitty person to give me about a half dozen images with expression.  And they were all sharp, due in part by the fact that she wasn't gonna move that much and the TTL (Through The Lens) flash that was turned on. Perfectly exposed and excited.

Nikon D60, Nikkon18-55mm VR, 50mm, F4, 1/20 sec.

Nikon D60, Nikkon18-55mm VR, 50mm, F4, 1/20 sec.

I was in no way at this time thinking that I could go into business for myself, but I relished every opportunity to take pictures of our growing little girl.  It was around this time that I found out about Ken Rockwell and his website, KenRockwell.com.  His website proved to be a great resource for me as I became more and more interested in trying to get better images and anything that I could buy to help facilitate that.

That's all for today.  I'll continue catching you up over the next few posts to where I am now.  Along the way I'll always show you some of the cool images I shot, the images I thought were cool but really weren't as well as the epic fails.   Believe it or not, it's true, a fancy camera doesn't produce amazing images...you do.

God Bless

Introduction

 

My name is Seneca Jones.  My wife and I are the proud owners of Maddie Grace Photography by Seneca Jones in Dallas, Texas.  I am a luxury lifestyle and headshot photographer and have been in business since June of 2012.  We are getting ready to move full speed ahead in 2014 to grow our dream of turning this into a full-time endeavor into a reality.  

The reason that I created blog is to be a diary of sorts to be able to look back on the beginning stages of making the switch from working in corporate America to making a successful exciting life of my own as a professional photographer.  Here I'll share my struggles, frustrations, challenges, victories, triumphs and evolution as a photographer as I chronicle on a weekly basis about what I deeply believe will be story of success.  At the same time, I hope to offer someone an opportunity who is thinking about becoming a professional photographer some insight into what it takes to have the faith and confidence to achieve their dream.  I don't have it all figured out.  Heck I'm just really getting started.   

Over the next few weeks, I'll be providing some background on how I got started in photography and I'll also share some of my early photographs.  

Welcome! And if you have any questions, please fell free to leave a comment and I'll be more than happy to respond.

Seneca