My first camera was a Canon Rebel 8ti that comes with a little user manual that is a waste of tree bark. Toss it, curl up in a comfie chair, and roku your way to youtube. There are a ton of how-to videos that will have you navigating the menus and regurgitating the exposure triangle like a pro.
After many hours surfing the Youtube quagmire, I began searching for more professional options. Don’t get me wrong, Youtube is an invaluable resource, and most importantly, it’s free. But! …let’s just say the exagerrated cheerfulness and pointless rambling of some of those vloggers overpower an otherwise informative message.
SANITY WARNING: Don’t watch Youtube videos before morning caffeine.
Paid Options: Ben Long is a practicing photographer and his Photography Basics videos are some of best learning videos available. To my knowledge, they are only available on the LinkedIn website which is subscription-based. I paid for one month and binge watched his videos taking detailed notes and then ventured out to practice what I had learned. Another useful website is CreativeLearning. It is another subscription-based option, but their courses have indepth videos as well as shorter courses with quick and dirty quickstarts. Both of these websites are affordable and you don’t have to commit to an expensive yearly subscription. Another option is to take photography lessons at your local photo store. They will often have classroom and online learning options as well as private lessons. Be forewarned, this option tends to be pricey, but the availability of an instructor for Q&A is an invaluable perk.
There’s a ton of history in downtown Boston, and since my temporary place of residence is a Boston suberb, I wanted to take pics of all the cool stuff that downtown Boston has to offer. The problem: parking. It is near impossible to find parking downtown unless you park in a parking garage which is outrageously expensive. But I found an unusual alternative, it turns out that cemetaries in Boston have more than dead people. Many of them are well-maintained with many willing subjects and the best part: ample, free parking. For instance, Cambridge Cemetary is filled with beautiful flowers, a pond with with spouting water, birds, insects, chipmunks, and tree rats (aka squirrels). The ducks and geese are so tame, a few of them are brave enough to grab peanuts or pieces of bread straight from an outstretched hand. The following are a few of the pictures I took with my Rebel 8ti at the Cambridge Cemetary in Cambridge, MA.
