My Photography Hobby

After some discussion Jake and I decided to invest a little more into my photography hobby. I am getting a camera upgrade! I purchased my Canon Rebel XTi back in 2008 before our first trip to Ireland. It has served me well, visiting many cities and countries as well as covering NoVA and DC. It served me well when I took the "Eye of the Photographer" class with Steven L. Miller. (He moved out of the D.C. area before I got the chance to take another class with him and that made me very sad.) Recently though I have begun to notice a degradation in performance of my DSLR workhorse. It doesn't focus as well regardless of what lens I am using. Low light photos are particularly noisy despite using a lower ISO than I should. I am thinking after 7 years it is time to upgrade.

Source: Wikipedia

After doing some research on current Canon choices (since all my lenses will fit) I have opted to upgrade away from the Rebel base and go for the Canon 70D. This isn't a professional model by any means but it has some nice features and capabilities above the consumer level of the Rebel line. Plus it will take video, something the XTi didn't do. I am excited for a sensor better equipped to handle lower light and hopefully a more capable autofocus. Sometimes I manual focus but my eyesight isn't the best so I don't always trust my eyes and rely more on the camera. Now that I have a pretty good handle on manual settings I am hoping for less disappointing results when I copy the photos onto my computer. One recommendation I will make is always zoom in on the photo when looking at it on the camera screen if it is important for you that it turn out well at the time. So many times my photos have looked great on the screen and terrible on the computer.

My boys are the perfect subject for practice and I hope to capture some great images of them (when they cooperate) with my new equipment. With my professional life in a bit of a frustrating place right now I will admit it feels good to be investing in something I really love and enjoy. I am hoping to share good results here.