The Places You'll Go

In a foreign place, everything is novel. The public transport, currency, language, food and buildings, to name a few. Yet we tend to take our home towns for granted. Months ago, I can't even remember how, I found out about a course that Michaels camera store offers, where you spend all day traipsing around Melbourne, learning how to take better photos, using the city as your backdrop. Of late, I've let a number of things go that I was once really into, so I figured this would be a good opportunity to get back into photography and learn some new stuff along the way. I'd also never have enough front to go around town snapping away, it's always easier to do something like that in a group. Even if you all collectively look like geeks, at least it's better than looking that way on your own.


For a while, I've been saying to myself that it'd be nice to invest in a digital SLR camera, but simply couldn't warrant it, thinking that you have to be particularly good at taking photos in the first place to make it worth the expense. For that matter, it would be simply too hard for a technophobe like me to ever work out all its functions. Last Saturday, I took along my old Canon EOS 35mm camera, and one of the instructors for the day generously offered to loan me a digital SLR for the day. We were fortunate enough to only have four people in the group, meaning that we could fire plenty of questions at the staff and get plenty of help and advice along the way. We were also blessed with great weather. The sun kept peeking out, then going in again, allowing us a big range of light conditions to mess around with. When the heavens did finally open, it was at the very end of the day, while we were safe under the tarp of a coffee shop, resting our tired feet. It's the best kind of tiredness I've experienced in a long time.


I learned about a lot of things that I've never had the chance to fiddle with manually, such as light metering, changing aperture and experimenting with filters. I never realised just how many additional features there are on a digital that actually allow you to learn more about what you're doing, just by experimenting with what each one does. I'm still not entirely convinced that the photo quality is that much different between 35mm and digital, but the latter sure is fun to use.