Becoming greedy.. (Chapter 3)

After I got the A100, I started to become greedy about something I still had very limited knowledge on. I believe I had yet to begin my AS Photography course, or I had just begun it, and I didn't quite understand the power of the lenses I had.

In my naiveity and greed I wanted the biggest zoom lens I could get my father to purchase for me. A massive 70-300mm, weighing in at a gazillion tonnes and taller than Goliath himself. True story. It wasn't until very very recently, that my voila moment kicked in and I truly realised what I could be using this fantasmical lens for. Candid shots.

I could be looking through it from across the city into a little known market snapping away pictures of the unsuspecting persons picking their nose, scratching their bums or just generally being the funny, weird, terribly unhygienic human beings we all secretly are when we think no one's watching. And when did I figure out I could catch them in action?

About 3 years after I had the lens sitting away collecting dust, because I felt that I could never really be using it, since nothing needed that amount of zoom. But one day, I gathered all my kit, and went to Diwali at Trafalgar Square and screwed this baby onto my camera body.

I then scoured like an eagle for my prey, my eye glued tight to the view finder, a wince on my face, and a stabby, throbby line of pain and strain going through my arm as I struggled and fought with the immense dull PAIN. I then saw this man. And in a blink of an eye, at 135mm I clicked so hard I almost broke a nail. Almost.

He couldn't see me at all. Yes! An achievement! Something so different from my clunky, completely unstealthy ways that have gotten me into various amounts of trouble in the past, and I became enamoured with this lens.

But, I still didn't understand the point of ISO. There's grain. So what, the picture's still there. The grain's not thaaaaat apparent and it makes me take the picture at a reasonable speed with very little to no blurring. I'm all up for ISO 1,000,000,000. Focus triumphs grain. That was my motto. You can't sharpen something that's not there.

But recently I've discovered the need and the desire for the lowest possible ISO settings. And I've come to realise in an earth-shattering, morale-destroying, life-consuming manner that my ISO setting of 1600 for that photograph was a BAD idea.

I realised recently that all my pictures taken with such little regard to ISO were worthless and would amount to nothing.. oh the woe! OH THE WOE! But more on that another time. We're here discussing my greedy naivety.

The morale of the story here is that if you don't quite understand cameras yet, there's no need to pretend to be a proper photographer. Just admit you're still learning. Even now I hesitate to call myself professional, and hover on the word "freelance". Not "professional freelance", just "freelance". There's still so much to learn that can't be learnt in classrooms, or during lessons or over the internet tutorials.

I was provided with all the basic and semi-intermediate knowledge to use manual settings during my learning years on the lovely mechanisms of the camera. But I didn't truly understand how to put it all together until recently. I thought I understood it all when I was first told all the dark magical secrets about ISO's and apertures and shutter speeds and f stops and things like that, but now I realise that I knew nothing back then!

Photography is about growing up. Once you grow up, you gain wisdom... somehow.

Falling in love with Sony (Chapter 2)

I've always wanted a fancy schmancy professional camera, and I believed with all my heart that my base little DSLR would be the fanciest camera in the world.

Of course I was aware of all these much more expensive and much more high end cameras, but my meagre A100 was huge for me. I still look back on it very fondly.

As soon as I had gotten it, I couldn't wait to rip open the box, avoid reading the manual. I pressed buttons like it was the end of the world, and only I could save it by.. well.. pressing buttons. Unfortunately for my grandmother, she was visiting at the time when I had a huge camera frenzy.. which I still do, but in a much more mature manner.

I took this image of her watching television. One of my first images with my first DSLR. Oh, this is going back a few years!

It's not a perfect image as anyone can tell, it lacks contrast, the tones are too grey, and a landscape oriented portrait? What was she thinking!

I wasn't. I was so excited by this camera. It was probably one of my favourite moments in my life. I never thought I'd say that about something so consumeristic. But alas, Sony owned me from then on. Everything had to be Sony. I scoffed at the Canon owners, the Nikon users, the Pentax lovers. I had a DSLR that no one in their right mind would buy!

I loved the elitist feeling that Sony gave me, I felt special with its bright orange alpha logo, and it's sleek silver finish. All other cameras were black, monotonous and seemed so serious, but my Sony was bright, it was silver and sparkly and shiny and beautiful. It had dials and buttons and dials and even more buttons. Auto focus, manual focus, ISO adjustment, aperture adjustment... full manual mode!

No other digital camera I ever owned had it's own lenses! Unscrewable, rescrewable, interchangeable beauties. I was a starving 4 year old in Thorntons with leave to eat whatever I wanted. And I gorged myself on this camera. I took it everywhere. It was huge and heavy, it made my neck hurt and my arms hurt and for a considerable amount of time, it looked like I was winking because my face wouldn't return to normal!

I was in my honeymoon period with my precious Sony...

The story begins... (Chapter 1)

Hello world,

Coscritto Photography is finally taking off. So for everyone out there, let me tell you a little about it's photographer.

I'm 20 year old extremely passionate freelance photographer. When not out taking photos, I'm a law student, working her way through the education system.

It's been so long ago when I first got into photography that I can't even remember what truly inspired me to take photos. All I know is that the more photographs I seem to take, the more I fall in love with the art. I think the earliest photograph I can remember taking was this one.

I remember escaping into the colours, and I thought to myself that I want to take more. I began to use pictures as a way of escaping into this world that didn't really exist when I took my eye off the viewfinder.

I was very young and lost and confused. I didn't know where I was going with anything. I was in the midst of my A-Levels. My background had prepped me for a career in medicine, but I detested science. Detest is a strong word, it was logical, rational and made sense. I didn't enjoy it at all. I felt there was very little creativity and freedom in Science.

Today, I believe that Science can be creative, but try telling that to a 16 year old...

I then got talking to my grandfather, who decided that it was time I got a proper camera. My lovely grandfather, to who I truly credit the beginning of my artistic career. He told me about this whole collection of cameras that he himself had, and for a long time in a while I related to someone. I finally felt that my family made some sense.

He bought me a beginners DSLR from the little money he had, which I thought was the most amazing thing on the planet. It was four times the price as compared to any other camera I had ever owned! Nowadays, you can't even find one Sony lens for the cost of that camera. But I loved it to bits.

A Sony A100, to which I still credit some of my most favourite photographs taken. It was big and clunky and came with the standard lens that I had not quite understood how exactly to utilise. It was so different to the compact Canon digital camera I had, which was discreet, sneaky and easily fit in my pocket. A present from my father...

The rest of the story, I will continue later. For now, you can find me here:

www.coscritto.com has all the details about how to hire me and contact me and some sample images. My flickr gallery can also be found for all you lovely flickr users here.

I'm even on facebook you web savvy bunch, and you can find me here.