My Gear

This is a bit early on in my quest to become a better photographer but I will take a little bit of time to  talk about what equipment I use right now. I am going to talk about my basic equipment and I will get into the lenses at a later date

I started with a GoPro Hero 3+ Black edition camera. This action camera, in my opinion, helped me with my composition and got me started on the trail to taking better pictures. The 3+ Black has no LCD screen or, for those of you who have never used a GoPro they don't have viewfinders either. Whatever I was looking at was what I was going to get, so I had to "picture" the picture.

GoPro cameras are extremely versatile and very rugged. You can mount them just about anywhere and capture some really great angles and perspectives. They are extremely small and lightweight and take some incredible photos. The video is fantastic as some of them can shoot video in 4K. There are so many accessories for the GoPro it's dizzying. Mounts, harnesses, cases, selfie sticks, straps, dome ports, handles shall I keep going? There is a mount or harness for just about anything you can think of and it is a great photography or video tool..

GoPros are kind of like an addiction, once you get one and use it you want more. So, a year after I got my first one I picked up the GoPro Hero 4 Silver camera.

The 4 Silver has a touch LCD screen on the back which is pretty cool and useful to compose your shot. Both the 3+ Black and 4 Silver shoot 12 megapixel images and are capable of 4K video. They will also shoot an astounding 30 shot burst of pictures in 1 second. This is how I capture most of my action shots. The time lapse is a pretty cool function as well. You can capture some pretty neat time lapse footage, just remember to figure out the math correctly. The only drawback to the GoPro is they do not zoom at all. These cameras will always be a favorite of mine and I will probably never be without one. I take one everywhere.

I pretty much maxed out all the GoPro equipment that I needed and I wanted to move forward with photography so I started looking into purchasing a "real" camera. After my research I decided the camera that fit both my needs and my budget was the Nikon D5300. I purchased the camera as a kit with 2 lenses and started taking pictures. This camera is a great start and should be in my camera bag for quite a while. I put a battery grip on it to beef it up a little and add some extra battery life to the camera as well.

About two and a half months later I than found a screaming deal on a Nikon D90 and bought that camera with a bunch of other gear at a fantastic price. I am now getting used to the D90 and it's menu setup as it is different then the D5300. The D90 has a battery grip as well which I do like and it is a solid workhorse. 

                              

Between the 2 Gopros and the 2 Nikons I should be set for a while and now have a good start on basic equipment. I need to add some specific lenses to my arsenal and I have not started shooting with a flash as of yet. I need to learn one thing at a time so the flash stuff will come later. For now I am full steam ahead with what I have and I am learning all the while.

See ya next week.

E

Kappys Keepers