mad_harlequin

Oh, my bad I was mostly ranting about myself in case that's what was going on, I was just saying that when I was (because I was)...I would've been better off just using what was on hand for whatever it was capable of. My apologies for being a jerk, and sorry.

As for what you're looking at that is a bit primitive to me to be honest but you can still learn on any camera. Try and learn composition with it until you've picked up a decent one, you can learn composition on a flipphone. If you're on a budget, I will say mirrorless is probably more or less the future but DSLR tech still does the job just like film cameras still do work just fine and you can grab a used and decent DSLR for pretty cheap these days (as well as a starter lens to go with it). I'm still using DSLR's personally.

Not to lecture but...I had to learn on a Nikon D50 DSLR (you can literally pick up a used one for like $50 now) and I hated it at the time, but in hindsight, I had a nasty attitude about my gear and could've learned a ton a lot faster if I'd just ditched that. I would bet if I had access to one in decent condition now I could make pretty great imagery with it with my current experience/skill level, and if I hadn't been constantly pissing and moaning about the gear I could've learned a ton of theory and stuff and made much better images with it and learned a lot more with it than I did at the time. Just pick up the gear you have on hand, and treat it like you're an apprentice learning with apprentice's tools, you can get the master's tools later on.

I say this because I recently picked up a used D60 to check and yes, I make great images with it despite its age and it's tons of fun to use it. As of two days ago I was taking really nice shots I'll be keeping with it. That with an equally old inexpensive lens attached as well.

This may or may not help, but in winter, when trees are leafless, I usually do most of my forest photography in stark monochrome. It brings out the harshness of the season and kinda works with the relative lack of color they have compared to when they're leafy.

I'm in VA so trees are like subtropical/super leafy during spring/summer/fall then they get barren in winter like now.

So this may be late to respond but like...I shoot still photography and spent $50 on a used Nikon D60 (2008 era entry level DSLR) as an experiment to see if I could get images as good as my Nikon D5500, cleaned it up, and surprise surprise, it works just fine. Image quality is comparable if you know what you're doing (I got it at MPB.com, by the way). At 10 megapixels the sensor leaves plenty of room for cropping if you make a slight mistake or whatever. I've also picked up a few inexpensive older lenses there- and same thing, no need to spend a fortune on new gear, especially if you're shooting DSLR. Used gear completely changed the game for me.

I would recommend if you go MPB getting excellent or like new condition on the camera body though regardless of what you do.

Mirrorless I can't talk about, but I do know it's way pricier. As a final note I'm ironically using the D60 exclusively for now because it's simpler and I'm teaching myself all the old film theory and other things I didn't learn properly about cameras with a simpler camera before I go back to the more advanced and powerful gear I shelled out on years ago. I've learned so much doing that so fast it isn't even funny.

Yeah, here's hoping.

Yeah, I still am here but nothing much going on.

Writing about the VA area; I think they're mostly gone; I remember in the 90's they were everywhere all summer and now you see two or three every blue moon.

On a happier note I have noticed them in wilder regions like deep in the woods near a creek in almost normal numbers at dusk (and a lot more present out in rural areas I've driven through at night). So maybe if whatever's stressing their population to death subsides somehow at some point they'll bounce back at some indeterminate point in the future. That's about as optimistic as I can get about this sort of thing though.

(edit: just noticed this is 22 days old, my bad)

So like you want then probably what I and others have suggested for street shooting; for portraits, get a 55-200mm (or similar focal length range) telephoto (long zoom) lens. With street shooting 18x55 or some similar zoom is probably what you want at first (some places have laws against telephoto lenses on the streets, so be wary of that- telephoto being more powerful zoom) unless you want to bite the bullet and try a prime/fixed focal length lens that won't zoom in or out. I've found on the streets prime can be problematic for wide angle/normal shots at times but it's still very doable. You can't like stroll into the middle of a busy street when you're focusing by moving your body.

The tech jargon is really counterintuitive at first but it's not that hard to figure out eventually. Just hit the books (google the exposure triangle, someone's bound to have written something explaining that somewhere online for free) and experiment with setup. With the camera you probably want to learn aperture priority mode first for what you're doing if my hunch is correct, but don't be ashamed of using automated modes to start.

Depends on your budget and what you're up to, to be honest, but here's my general purpose advice:

In general, start with something like a kit lens (one of my Nikon cameras shipped with an 18x55mm inexpensive kit lens, I still use it a ton) with zoom capacity, and either get a fixed focal length lens (i.e., 35mm only or something) or use the zoom lens like a kit lens when you're ready. In other words- set the focal length to something with the macro focus, and leave it there- avoid the temptation to zoom in and out for at least some shoots. I often set the kit lens I have to 18mm and just leave it there at it's widest zoom length while strolling down forest trails. Either way, you learn to focus with your feet instead of the zoom capacity (that's what you do with a prime lens anyway) which to me is very important- eventually you just instinctively know where to stand to frame your shot. Do that and practice on subject matter that doesn't move around a lot at first- landscapes, streetscapes, flowers, whatever- at first and try to learn artistic composition technique as soon as possible, the way a painter would.

Once you've got the hang of using that sort of setup, figure out what subject matter you're interested in and then go grab other lenses like long lenses or a wide angle ones. They're often pricier than the above setup, but necessary for certain types of work.

There ARE general use lenses that go from wide angle to far zoom but they can really be pricey. What are you planning on shooting in terms of subject matter?

I am here as a Reddit refugee. I've noticed a lot of the communities here that interest me haven't hit any sort of critical mass for participation sadly...but I check in most days anyway.

Basically visual arts software and some writing software. Additionally I have a free version of Ableton Live Lite 11 (so one music-making application as well) that came with my keyboard.

I mostly do photography, writing, and other visual arts type work on my two computers. I use quite a few photography and painting applications (Photoshop, ArtRage, Rebelle, Lightroom, Inspirit, and a few others; I'm also looking at BlackInk), as well as Scrivener and MS Office when I'm writing. I don't know if any of those run well or at all in Linux or in Wine, etc. Also I stopped flirting with learning programming and there wasn't much point maintaining a Linux machine after that. I think Linux is better than Windows all around, and I hate Windows, but it's just because I use certain apps and from what I've heard and seen the Linux apps just aren't as good.

TLDR, creative software that won't run on Linux (to my knowledge, anyway).

Fools! You have made me a mod! Know ye not that I be an occultist?!?!

Fear not, I'll probably keep my metaphysics to myself though. Mostly. I am aware this is (mostly) an irreligious hangout of sorts. Assuming anyone besides me shows up, I mean.