Is Photography Still An Expensive Hobby?

Back before the digital camera era really took off, photography could become very expensive unless all you wanted to do was take some basic family photos. In the early stages of film photography, a darkroom with all kinds of machines was a requirement and it still was until its end in order to achieve exactly what you wanted with each picture. Eventually digital cameras started getting inexpensive, and the ability to take outstanding pictures that you could then work with on a computer became more and more possible. Eventually phones got cameras, and then we got to the point where professional photographers were using some of these phones for their creative works, especially the iPhone 4S.

Each and every hobby has its own set entry price, in a way. Meaning that all hobbies pretty much have a minimum cost just to get started, but you can make the hobby as expensive as you want it to be. However, a big part of photography is the user. You could have a $8000 DSLR with an army of telephoto, wide-angle, and 1:1 lenses and have lousy pictures if you don’t know what you’re working with.

Photography overall has certainly gotten cheaper. Because it’s all digital unless you still want to put up the money to play around with film photography, you can easily take as many pictures as you want. With digital photography, we have the luxury of not having to worry if a picture doesn’t turn out exactly how we want it. We can just delete and start over. Also, any manipulation or editing you want to do with that picture is now done on the computer. After you get done shooting you can simply load the images on to the computer and begin your work. Editing software may seem expensive to some, but it’s a lot cheaper and less time-consuming than a darkroom, and there’s a lot more you can do with it. If you still want the pictures printed, there are online service that will do it as well as many stores. Or, you can purchase your own photo printer.

I’ve seen a lot of people (including myself) take some fantastic photos with an inexpensive point and shoot digital cameras. Some would argue that you aren’t a true photographer if you use one of these, but what about the pros using their iPhones? As I’ve said before, photography isn’t all about your gear. There are a lot of rules that go along with getting a lot of good pictures. A big thing is composition and the rule of thirds. Don’t always put the focus of your image in the center. Most digital cameras take in extremely high-resolution, so you can always crop if you need to. A digital SLR does offer some features I like such as manual focus, but it’s all about your personal preference. So no, for a lot of amateurs like me, photography isn’t an expensive hobby. And hey, if you post your photos on sites like Flickr or a personal blog and get people to notice them. You might turn into a pro.