For this semester I enrolled myself in the Photography 101 course as one of the school electives that we’re required to take. I have always been interested in taking photos and watch how they turn out in picture frames or photographs, and how you can capture an image and watch how various angles, lighting, depth of field, create a different perspective from the actual image. So decided to get down to the nitty gritty fundamentals of photography and see where I’d go from there.

Loaned a DSLR camera from the RMIT AV equipment department. I managed to get my hands on a Canon 5D Mk III and had no clue what I have just picked up, but after looking it up on the web, I soon found out that it costs over $2k for a shiny new one. Obviously having something of such paper value couldn’t be so bad right?

Took the camera to the nearby Carlton Gardens, just a 10 minutes walk from my apartment and started shooting away anything that might have caught my eye. Played around with the 3 main functions, ISO, Shutter Speed and Aperture. Tried to getting used to how those 3 functions played hand in hand with one another, meaning, if you made some adjustments to one, you probably have to make adjustments to the others. It was quite a handful trying to shoot and adjust, shoot and adjust, shoot and adjust multiple times. But after getting a hang of it (or somewhat), I guess you slowly see the relationship within the 3 functions play together to form that “perfect” image. Unfortunately, due to my ignorance and being naive, I loaned a camera that has a set of lens that couldn’t. I found that was a huge handicap, as was having a hard time framing certain subjects and finding the right angle. Lesson learnt, always check the equipment before loaning.

After spending over 2 hours at the park, which I totally didn’t expect myself to (gave myself at least an hour before I got bored or was done playing around) but no, had a little more fun then I thought I would, like a kid with a new toy. Only driving factor for me to stop and return home was probably the fading light and stomach growls for food. Having said that, found that 2 hours really productive and to a certain extend, a little therapeutic.

Enough said, some pictures that I thought were “good” in my opinion are uploaded along with this post. Hope you enjoy it.