When I started my photography journey I’m going to be honest. I had no clue what I was doing. NO clue. I had always had an interest in photography, but when I really thought about getting a DSLR camera I decided to ask my wedding photographer what she used because I loved her photos and figured if I had her camera I could take photos just like her, right? Haha. Wrong.
Camera gear plays a very important role in your photos, but make sure you do your research. My photographer was shooting on a Sony a77 at the time. She told me a bunch of stuff, a lot of which I didn’t understand, but somehow I was convinced that Sony was the best by the end of the conversation. SO you want to know what the first DSLR camera was that I bought? Yep. You guessed it, a Sony a77. It kind of terrifies me that I just jumped headfirst into such a huge purchase without doing any research and going solely off of someone’s opinion, but it also makes me realize that that’s who I am. I want to learn, but I want to learn fast and I want to chase my dreams right now. I kind of love that about myself. My husband on the other hand is the complete opposite. He will do research until he is blue in the face and knows everything about anything that is out there. It is a good thing we married each other because we both definitely need a good balance of the two.
So here I was with a Sony a77. Whatever that even meant. I had no clue what ISO, aperture, or Shutter speed was and I could stare at the number graphs on Pinterest all day and still have no clue. It wasn’t until I started simply messing around with them that I started to get the idea. I am a very hands on learner, so in retrospect I think it was a good thing I just got a camera because I probably would have never figured out anything until I did.
Having a camera in hand and shooting A LOT taught me so much. I learned about photography FB groups and started to get a grasp about what all these foreign terms meant such as crop sensor camera vs full frame, RAW vs Jpeg, DSLR vs Mirrorless. I learned all the things and still have a long way to go. Once I learned about these concepts though I realized my camera was not full frame and that I wasn’t shooting in RAW. I immediately started shooting in RAW and started looking into Sony Full Frame Mirrorless cameras.
I knew I wanted to stick with Sony because I knew the operating system and SO many people on these FB groups I was in were switching to Sony so clearly Sony was doing something right, plus I loved the idea of it being mirrorless. A few weeks after deciding I needed to upgrade I did. Lucky for me my husband has A LOT of faith in me and let me drop $4,000 on a new camera body and full frame lens. YIKES! Bless his heart. I am forever grateful to his support because it has allowed me to get to where I am today. I do not regret how I did things because it has brought me to where I am; however, I would recommend doing some research before hand and talking to lots of people before making big decisions like that.
I now shoot on a Sony a7iii with a 24-70mm F2.8 g master lens. I chose this lens to start off with because I love that I have the ability to get several focal lengths for all the things I need. There are benefits to a zoom lens but there are also downsides so I am hoping to add a prime lens to my gear very soon and I think the next lens I purchase will be the Sony 35mm f1.8.
I love Sony for lots of reasons, but I also believe that no matter what brand (Sony, Nikon, Canon, etc.) you choose, a good camera is a good camera. It all comes down to what features are most important to you personally. So do your research and reach out to me with any Sony questions that you may have!
