Hey all. I once took a photography course in school, way way back in like grade 8 (many many moons ago)... and I really enjoyed it. Now I'm the proud? owner of a Canon EOS Rebel G SLR camera, it does fully automatic for those of us with no clue, but can be swapped into fully manual mode as well. I've been taking pics with it for a while now, but nothing that would constitute 'art' as it were (shots are mostly family stuff, kids, cats etc). What I'm wondering... is... do you all have any tips, tricks, tutorials, book suggestions, equipment suggestions etc... for someone interested in taking this up as a hobby? I don't have my own darkroom, so film gets developed by the film developer type people at Black's or Japan Camera etc... although one day when I'm rich LOL, I wouldn't mind doing the darkroom thing again, that was a riot. Loved that part of the class. Anyhow, I do have one image I might post, just need to see if it will show up after being scanned :) Just thought I'd introduce myself and ask a bunch of questions :)

You said you have "nothing that would constitute 'art'". It's all art, even though one man's art..... Scan the galleries, there's always room for more "art". Looking forward to seeing yours!

Welcome Mercy, I've just started here myself and don't know all the ins and outs of this place, but I find the best resource is the people here. When you see an image here and say to yourself, "Wish I could do something like that, how was it done?" Then bug the Forum with questions. When you experiment, and it doesn't quite turn out how you expected, post it in the Forum asking for suggestions. You don't need to follow all the suggestions, but it should be a lively exchange none the less.

Hi Mercy, glad to have you here. Pull up a camera and shoot awhile LOL. Freds instructions are better than I could have thought, so please peruse, visit us, post, and enjoy. Its a great bunch of people with amazing talents. Syyd

I recommend saturating every possible source of information on the subject that you can find if possible. Can't go wrong that way!

grins Thanks for all the welcomes and tips/info. I'll go check out the faq and all that fun stuff :) Will be posting again soon :) Thanks.

Hello Mercy! Dont feel bad, I'm a total nit witt. :) The forum is a great resource for learning and one tends to get a lot of good ideas here.

I happen to spent an evening this week at Barnes and Noble. The granddaughter needed a particular book. They have a reasonable section of books on photography. Some of the better ones are the Kodak 35 mm Photography series. The section next to the how-tobooks is filled with various photographers collections. Watch out this gets time consuming.

Hello Mercy...I love my local Library, and have exhausted all the books on photography there. I have found that the more you take photographs and share them and exchange ideas with people like our friendly forum members...the more you will find that what PhrankPower says is right - Look! You ARE an artist!!