I love supporting small businesses. After all, I’m one myself. Small businesses are the backbone of America and employ millions of people. But what I value most about small businesses is the level of customer service I generally receive and their commitment to outstanding products. This is true for a Pittsburgh company who specializes in hand-crafted, high-quality bags: Moop.

You see, I’d been looking for a “non-diaper bag” bag for a while now, anticipating the arrival of Baby Schwarz. Although I’m thrilled at the prospect of becoming a mom, I just don’t want to lug around a bag that well, looks like a diaper bag. I figured that whatever bag I got, it would need to hold both baby stuff and all my junk (read: things like lip gloss, a million kleenexes, old receipts, and a giant water bottle). Having heard about Moop bags from some Pittsburgh photographers, I decided to see if they had anything suitable for diaper bag purposes.

And that’s where great customer service comes in. I called Moop and was able to speak with a real human being who kindly explained the differences between their bags and which ones might work best for me. I ended up deciding on the Porter bag, and placed my order on Wednesday. Today I received my new bag! Talk about fast service!

The Porter has plenty of room for all my stuff I anticipate hauling around: diaper changer, bottles, extra clothes, books, toys, you name it. I’ve got easy access to everything with snap closures, and I have the option to sling the bag across my body or carry it on my shoulder. And the best part about it all? It’s machine washable.

So if you’re looking for a new laptop bag, messenger bag, shopping tote, carry-everything bag, check out Moop. And if you live in Pittsburgh, you can pick up your bag in person!

Here are a few photos of my new bag (with a little preview of the nursery–more to come on that).

Let’s face it, wedding receptions are often filled with mundane, boring-looking moments. Aside from the dancing and toasts–where you get a lot of emotion and interaction between people–the rest of the event is largely filled with people standing, sitting, staring, eating, and talking. Now for the people doing those things, they’re probably having a great time. But who wants photos of themselves chomping down on hors doeuvres? How can you create interesting images out of people standing around?

When the moments themselves appear uninteresting, I search for a way to make them more intriguing–namely, I find an unusual or interesting composition. Once I’ve found an interesting composition that has potential for a moment, I literally plant myself and wait for the moment to arrive. I call this working through a scene. Sometimes I’ll get something interesting, other times I won’t, no matter how long I wait or try. That’s OK, sometimes you just have to walk away.

Here’s an example I found as I was culling a recent wedding. You’ll see I was taking some detail shots, people talking, boring images. Then I noticed the interesting light from the panels in the back of the room. I also see a big line of people in front of the (truly amazing) cookie table (more on that later). I think there might be something interesting here. So I start shooting, cleaning up my composition. But there’s nothing, nothing, nothing…the people are too crowded and overlapping at first. Then they start to clear to about four or five subjects. OK, this is getting more interesting, but I still haven’t created an image I like.

So I keep shooting more images. I’m looking for distinct profiles, and I’m waiting for everyone to “line up” in an interesting way. I also want the photo to convey some sort of story about people standing and waiting. Finally, I see the girl is doing something interesting with her hand–she’s touching her face. This is what I was looking for. Even though I think I’ve gotten an image I like, I continue to shoot to see if something better will come along. Obviously, it doesn’t. The four people are down to three, the symmetry is lost. I’m not going to get anything more interesting so I move on.

The final step is to crop and edit the image. I don’t like how the man on the far left is blob-like, nor do I like the distracting light of the candle on the table. So I crop in and edit the image. Here is the final result. Sure, it’s no tear-inducing moment, but it’s about as interesting a photo that you’re going to get of people standing around at a reception.

My hope is that this will be both interesting to brides and to photographers who read my blog. Feel free to share your favorite images from my past weddings, too. I would love to know what photo really caught your eye.

Today’s photo is from Erin and Zack’s wedding last June. The morning started off with cloudy weather and intermittent rain, but it mostly cleared up while we were taking group photos before the ceremony. Everyone was hopeful that we’d make it through the day without anymore rain showers. However, about five minutes before the ceremony ended, it seemed the heavens opened up, and it literally started pouring outside. And I mean pouring.

We debated about whether or not we should make a run to the car. In the end, Erin bravely took off her shoes and we all dashed to the limo, at which point I got this photo…another favorite.

But the image I wanted to highlight today transpired a few minutes after we got into the car. Erin and Zack were bundled in the back seat with Jay on Zack’s other side (who held an umbrella over me while we ran to the car). I was crammed between the front seat and floor between them, as a cooler was taking up space in the front seat. I actually took several frames from this position, with earlier ones showing more of the excitement from running to the car in the rain.

This moment, however, is much quieter, more mysterious. I purposely exposed the image to highlight the raindrops on the window to portray the feeling of how dark and gloomy it was outside. We don’t normally think of wedding days as dark and gloomy (and hopefully they’re aren’t usually gloomy!), but sometimes you may have a quiet, unexpected moment like that on your wedding day. That is part of the story, too. I didn’t prompt Erin to look out the window–she just did.

I took several frames of this moment, hoping to get one that best conveyed the mood. I focused on Erin’s face using a wide open aperture, purposely leaving Zack’s face underexposed and out of focus. This was my favorite image, and I particularly like how we only see Erin’s profile–it makes the expression on her face less discernible and more open for personal interpretation. It reveals how even on very public days of our lives we have many private thoughts and feelings. Maybe she is thinking something deep…or maybe she’s just looking at the rain falling from the sky. Only Erin knows.

Camera info:
Canon 5D Mark II
ISO: 1250
Shutter: 1/125th
Lens: Canon 24 1.4L mark II
Aperture: 1.4
Manual exposure, no flash used

So in a constantly changing world, how do you find your vision and define your style as a photographer? This is a question not just for new photographers starting out–trying to figure out what they want to do–but this is also a question that the most seasoned pro must consider as they attempt to stay true to who they are while constantly improving and adapting as they grow.

I was asked this question recently by a friend who is a growing photographer, so I thought I would attempt to answer it more fully here (as best I can!). I came up with four tips I thought may help you find your vision and define your style as a photographer.

1. Always remember your first love. Why did you decide to pick up a camera? What was it that drew you to photography? Was it people? Interesting compositions? Connections you saw? Little details you noticed? Don’t abandon that first love that sparked your interest.

2. Be curious. When you are curious about the world and the faces in it, you will desire to discover and reveal its truths in your work. Only you can see the world through your own two eyes. Show everyone else what that feels like. When you are curious, you are asking questions…why…how…where…when… and you’re looking for answers. Use your camera to document those answers.

3. Choose your influences wisely. It’s only human to be influenced by others. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. We can be inspired to greater heights in our work by the power in someone else’s photos. But we can also quickly loose our unique vision when we try to emulate another’s work. I see a lot of photography websites with very similar looking photos, as though the photographers are each following a simple formulaic approach. There is no curiosity in the images, just bland, boring, see-that-exact-photo-somewhere-else. So be wise when you choose what blogs, websites, and twitter accounts you’re going to follow. Even better, look for influences that are non-photography related to inspire you.

4. Learn the rules first, then break them. Being creative doesn’t mean producing sloppy work. When you are new to photography, you are passionate, curious, and excited–this is wonderful. But the bad thing is that you likely don’t know much about good composition and exposure. It’s tempting to excuse that poor work as “creative,” but in reality it’s just bad. Truly creative work can only be produced when you know the rules first and then know when to break them. That’s true creative freedom.

As a case in point, I’m going to use myself as an example. The work I’m creating today is different than the work I was producing two years ago. While I see common ground in it–the core things I was drawn to two years ago are the same as today–my technique and style have developed and changed. I have a better grasp of good composition. I see light differently. In short, I’m a much better photographer today than I was two years ago.

This was an engagement session with a dog I photographed in March 2009. There’s nothing bad about it. I know my couple loved their photos. But in my honest opinion, many people could have taken those shots. They aren’t particularly unique.

This was an engagement session with a dog I photographed a couple weeks ago in March 2011. I see some similarities…but my use of light and composition is vastly different. I’m not trying to be prideful, but I honestly don’t think just anyone would have made those compositions I did.

So how did I get from point A to B? Well, for starters I have taken literally tens of thousands of photos between those two sessions. I have followed my curiosity, I have taken steps to learn the rules before breaking them, I have carefully selected influences that only inspire me, and I have tried to hold onto my first love and create images that are meaningful to me.

If you’re a photographer trying to find your vision and style, I would encourage you to follow those four tips to get you started.

Instead of photographing responsively, I often photograph reactively. By that I mean that I often chase after the moment, usually capturing it, but often with sloppy composition and lighting. A responsive photographer anticipates the moment, sets up the composition in accordance with the light, and waits for the moment to transpire. This takes patience and forethought. But the payoff in terms of photographic quality are so worth it.

With that in mind, I headed out to the streets of Pittsburgh yesterday with my friend Milla to practice seeing, composing, and waiting. My goal: come away with one photo I liked, which is exactly what I ended up with after a couple of hours shooting in the cold. I wanted the photo to have the three elements of a great picture: light, composition, and moment. Only this one fit the bill, but I really enjoyed the experiment and plan to continue this series of Pittsburgh street photography.

Bonus points to those who can guess which Pittsburgh store this was taken in.

And here’s one extra of Milla basking in the sun.

The first up is the Canon 16-35mm F/2.8L II EF Lens. This is a fantastic wide-angle lens. I bought is new July 2009 and have loved using it. But since I purchased several other wide angle lenses, it’s been mostly sitting around in my bag this past year. I hate to part with it, but I can’t justify having a $1500 paperweight.

The lens is in great condition, 9/10. There’s a small piece of rubber on the edge torn (see photo), and I’m ordering a replacement cap (lost it). I’ve had a Hoya glass filter on it from day one, so the lens is scratch-free. I’m including the filter ($70) for no extra charge. Comes with box, hood, manual, and new cap.

Asking: $1275 Prefer paypal, but can take cash if local. Comment with your email address if you’re interested.

Next up is a Canon 5D classic camera. This is the original model of the famous 5D. It’s a full-frame sensor camera, so no crop ratio. I love this camera and have used it to photograph many weddings. I bought it new March 2008. I don’t know the shutter count, but I’m sure it is A LOT. The camera is in good condition–just some cosmetic scratches on the bottom and on the hotshoe. Sensor is dust-free. There are some specs of dust in the viewfinder, but it doesn’t affect photos. LCD screen is scratch-free. Camera comes with all the manuals, wires, battery charger and free extra battery. I’m currently looking for the box…I may or may not be able to find it. I’m selling this camera because I’m upgrading it to the mark II.

Asking: $880 Prefer paypal but will take cash if local. Comment with your email address if you’re interested.

I also think the camera and lens would make a great starter set–much better than that silly kit lens they usually include. Let me know if you’re interested in both.

OK, back on topic–caveats aside, I’d like to think my economics minor in college hasn’t been for naught. And being married to an economist should count for something, right? So let’s jump right in…

A few months ago I read a blog post by a photographer who made a fantastic claim: They had booked every wedding client they’d ever consulted with except for two. And in those two exceptions, it had been a matter of one couple not deciding soon enough and the other just not interested. (And from their blog, it appeared business was booming…so they weren’t talking about 5 people here). Clearly it was the photographer’s excellent sales and marketing strategy that resulted in such a high booking rate, or at least that’s how they explained it. They simply couldn’t understand why other photographers whined and wailed about poor bookings–even in a bad economy. They had obviously found the best sales method.

I was impressed. But skeptical. It sounded too good to be true.

On second thought, it sounded horrible.

Let me explain. Realistically, weddings usually occur on weekends–with the majority still taking place on Saturdays. So the average wedding photographer probably has around 40-50 days that they can shoot weddings in a year, not accounting for any weekends they’d like to spend with their own families. If you work in a cold winter climate, you can also pretty much assume most weddings will be in the summer, leaving you with even fewer viable dates for work.

Therefore, every wedding photographer’s goal should be to maximize the profitability of the days they do work (if they want to stay in business). That’s because there’s a hidden cost in the wedding photography industry that’s rarely mentioned and never shows up on tax reports: opportunity cost.

Ah yes, that measurable cost of nothing. Or rather, the cost of not doing something else. It’s easy to understand. If I get paid $500 dollars to photograph a wedding when someone else would have gladly paid me $5,000 to shoot their wedding on the same day, I’m out $4,500 in opportunity cost. Yes, I booked that wedding…but I also walked away from $4,500.

So getting back to the article. Being my skeptical self, I thought there were two options. One–the photographer really did have incredible sales skills that couples couldn’t say no to. Or two–the photographer was under-priced and too many couples could afford them. By too many, I mean that the photographer was having to turn many other couples away who would have been willing to pay more if they could have just secured the date.

A quick perusal of that photographer’s prices in comparison with other local wedding photographers confirmed my suspicions. The photographer’s prices were much, much lower than the average price of their competitors. No wonder everyone wanted to book them! They were the best deal in town!

So while they were patting themselves on the back for their excellent sales strategies, all I could see were the hundreds or thousands of dollars in lost profits they were accruing in every booking they were making.

Quite simply, you shouldn’t be booking every person who walks through your door or calls you on the phone. If you are, you’re not efficiently using your resources–your finite time.

It’s simple supply and demand. Yes, I went there. Remember those awful graphs you had to draw in economics class? One line going up, the other going down, and a happy meeting in the middle. That’s what you’re searching for–that happy meeting place–when you’re getting the most profit for your time and resources at the perfect price people are willing to pay.

And look I drew a graph!

That perfect price, of course, is going to vary from photographer to photographer and from location to location. All I know is if you’re running out of available dates to work 12 months in advance and you’re turning many couples away, you’re not valuing your time correctly. It’s time to raise your prices and start maximizing your profit!

Lastly, of course, this is all assuming you want to maximize your profits. I know some people who prefer to keep their prices lower than what they could be charging because they believe wedding photography should only cost a certain fixed amount. If that’s how you feel, then by all means, charge what you’d like. And in a way, I understand where they’re coming from. At the same time, these same photographers bemoan the fact they they have too much work to do in too little amount of time. My goal isn’t to squeeze my clients for every last penny I can get. I want to provide them with the best service and products at a sustainable price for my business. And I know that being profitable is the key to staying in business and reinvesting in myself and my resources (equipment, training, time-off, etc.) The alternative is burn out from overworking at a below market price.

I’m not sure if I read that somewhere or if it just popped into my head. But I’ve been mulling that thought over the past couple of days, thinking about photography, art, and business.

There’s a lot of photographers out there now, myself included. And for every established photographer I know, I can probably think of two more aspiring ones from among friends, family, and acquaintances. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. This post isn’t going to be some rant against the invasion of “moms with cameras” and the watering down of quality photography. Frankly, I’m sure I have contributed to some of that myself.

But I have begun to wonder if anyone is asking themselves, “Why am I doing this?” Is anyone truly producing something original and creative, or are we all copying one another? I look around at photography blogs and see a lot of the same stuff. Cue photo of wedding shoes hanging from a lampshade. Cue photo of cute couple holding hands standing against a wall.

I know I’m guilty of this myself some, too. I’ve settled for the easy and expected shots instead of pushing for something more real and original. Whose dream am I following then?

What is my dream? My dream is to create powerful, moving images that capture the essence of my clients and the stories of their lives. My dream is to exceed their expectations, producing the best photos I can possibly create.

And I know if that’s my dream, then I need someone to give me a good kick in the pants. I need someone who can tell me the truth about my work, who can push me to move beyond my comfort zone. I need someone to say, “You know, that photo sucks,” if the photo really sucks. And I need them to tell me why and how I could have done better.

Because the truth is, though we may often think we are our own worst critiques, as artists, we are often blind to our work’s imperfections. We simply can’t see what’s wrong with it. We need an impartial eye to give it to us like it is but not try to sell us their dream in the process. We need encouragement but not sales tactics for a product.

There is no magic product to good photos. No bag, lens, camera, or flash is going to help you become a great photographer. Hard work and honest feedback will. If you’re serious about being a photographer, I would encourage you to seek out those who are better than you and ask for (and be willing to accept!) critique.

To put my money where my mouth is, I’ve signed up for a one-of-a-kind week-long break-you-down-and-build-you-up workshop taught by a team of the most talented wedding photojournalists out there. The Foundation Workshop. There’s no staged model shoot with a gorgeous bride and groom, there’s no luncheon about networking, and there’s no products to buy. Instead there’s two days of shooting an assignment by yourself, a live critique of every single shot you took (no editing or deleting allowed) done in front of everyone else, and 20 plus talented mentors pushing you to be the best photographer that you can be.

I’m so excited, thrilled, scared, nervous, elated, anxious, and so, so ready to get pushed out of my comfort zone. I am ready to follow my dreams, not someone else’s. I am doing this mostly for me–I want to be a better photographer–but I know that in the end, I’m also doing this for my clients. Me being a better photographer means better photos for them. Less fluff, more real stuff.

So if you’re a photographer–established or aspiring–find your own dreams and follow them.

So, imagine how many photos you have on your hard drive, and multiply that by 10 or more for me. I’m regularly taking around 75 GB (gigabytes) of photos at EVERY wedding. That adds up pretty quickly. How do I keep from drowning in files and running out of hard drive space? Well, there’s more than one answer to this question.

Here’s the thing, when you begin to think about storing your photos, you have to consider two things: short-term storage vs. long-term storage. How long you want to store your photos will determine what kinds of storage solutions you use. Let’s start with short-term storage.

Short-term storage is anything from a few days to about a year. These are images you recently took and are waiting to edit, upload to a website, create an album, and/or share with family and friends. Obviously, quick access is key to short-term storage. You don’t want to be digging for a DVD of images every time you need to access them. At the same time, you need to be assured that you’re not going to loose all of your photos if your hard drive crashes. And it will. Trust me. Hard drives like to crash. It’s only a matter of time before yours goes kaput.

So, you need some sort of system of redundancy, where your photos are backed-up in more than one place. For mac uses, I’ve heard the Apple time machine can be a good solution of automatically backing up your files, though there’s still the risk that the external hard drive will fail. And then there’s the Apple Time Capsule, which wirelessly backs up your files. But the biggest storage you can get is a 2TB (terabyte), which sadly, probably won’t cut it for most professional photographers who are regularly working with thousands of gigabytes of photos. At this point, you’re looking into multiple external hard drives and some sort of RAID system that will automatically spread your data across multiple drives to minimize the risk of a drive failing. If you’re fairly good with this sort of thing, I’m sure you can figure out a good system to rig, but if you’re like me, who doesn’t have time to figure out what kind of hardware and systems I need, then a Drobo might be the best solution for you.

Drobos use a proprietary system of backing up your data which allows for the failure of several hard drives without the loss of any data. Sweet. All you need to do is get some hard drives, load them into the Drobo, format everything, and start using it for all of your short-term storage needs. It’s that simple. The Drobo handles all the rest of the complicated backing up stuff. This is the solution I use for my short-term storage needs. Of course, I bought my Drobo several years ago, and they have since come out with even bigger and better products, so you’ve got lots of choices in terms of storage size. I currently have about 4 terabytes of usable storage (using about 8 terabytes worth of drives). Because it’s a redundant system, you will end up with about half of the storage capacity of the drives you use. It’s a small price to pay for peace of mind. In fact, I did have a hard drive failure last year. But it was a piece of cake to fix. All I had to do was take out the defective drive and put in a new one. Woila! No files were lost, and I was up and running again in no time.

Here’s a photo of my lovely Drobo…and if you look closely, you’ll see a layer of dust underneath it. Nice.

But, that kind of system isn’t going to store my photos for years. Even if I bought the biggest Drobo and stuffed it with lots of terabyte drives, one day, I’d run out of space. Besides, I don’t really need to pull up someone’s wedding from 2007 on a regular basis. What kind of solutions are there for long-term storage? Well, there is the old burn a DVD of images…but I honestly think that’s a very poor system. Who knows if we’ll even be using DVDs in 10 years? Of course, it’s impossible to know for sure what turns technology will take and what will be around in 20 years, but I have a feeling that the internet, in some form or another, will still be around. Not to mention, I think the days of the home computer as we know it are limited. You want a long-term storage solution that will give you access to your photos from anywhere in the world.

Clearly, that’s an online storage system, which is exactly what I use. Disregarding the funny name, Smugmug is a great photo sharing and storage website, of which I’ve been a pro member since 2006. Of course, there are plenty of photo sharing and storage websites out there, like flikr, snapfish, and google’s picasa, and they might work great for the average consumer photographer who’s just taking photos of their family, but I don’t think they’re good solutions for professional photographers. The only exception may be flickr, but then you need to buy a pro account to have unlimited storage. And just between you and me, I hate flickr’s layout…it’s so cumbersome to try to look through photos. Not to mention, it’s easy for anyone to copy your photos for free.

With a professional account with Smugmug, though, you get unlimited storage, an incredible array of privacy options, the option to upload and store videos and RAW files, and incredible customer service. I not only use Smugmug for my online proofing, but I also use it for my long-term storage. Once I’ve finished a wedding and delivered all of the products to the client, including their DVD of images, I delete all of their photos from my Drobo, keeping only an online copy of all the high-res jpegs. I’m sure you could ask, “Well, what if Smugmug’s servers permanently fail and you loose all of your photos?” In that case, yeah, I’d loose all those photos…but honestly, I’m not too worried about that. I’ve already fulfilled my contract at that point. As for my personal files, yeah, I’d be disappointed to lose those, but again, the photos most important to me I have in other places, ie, in picture frames in my house. In the end, you’re going to have to accept some risk…even storing hundreds of DVDs of photos in bank safe doesn’t guarantee you’ll never loose those photos.

One more anecdote–when I was traveling this spring and doing several shoots, I used my MacbookPro for editing. When finished, I immediately uploaded all the photos to the website. In an unfortunate turn of events, my Macbook got some tea spilled on it and it basically got fried. What if that had been the only place where I stored those photos? I’d have been in trouble. Fortunately, I had them all on Smugmug, so I simply downloaded them again to my home computer and created a DVD of the images for the client. No skin off my teeth.

In conclusion, when thinking about your storage needs, you need to consider short-term vs. long-term solutions and have good systems for both.

As you become an expert at something…or at least a perceived expert at something, you’ll quickly find people asking you for advice. I know I certainly ask my SEO guru friend questions about SEO all the time. Which is why friends, family, and internet readers often ask me about what camera and gear they should purchase. I’m an expert, right? Yes, in some respects…I do know a lot about cameras, at least the ones I use. But in reality, the question “What camera should I buy?” is mostly dependent on who’s asking the question. I actually wrote a more philosophical answer to the question earlier in the year, I thought I’d try to be more specific this time around.

To answer the question, you need to consider a few things.
1. What do you hope/plan to use the camera for? Are you a mom wanting to take better photos of your kids playing? Are you an enthusiast looking to go pro in portrait and wedding photography? Or are you just looking for a nice camera to take on vacation?

2. How much money are you looking to invest? What’s your budget? $200, $1200, $2000?

3. How long do you see this purchase lasting you? Are you planning on upgrading again in a year? Do you want this camera to last you 4 years? Is this just a step towards bigger and better things?

4. What’s your interest in learning to use the camera’s settings? Do you just want something that only requires you to point and shoot? Or are you actually interested in learning how to use the camera’s functions?

5. Are there any must-have features? Do you want video capability? Face recognition?

Once you answer those questions, you can begin to narrow down what you need. I’ll give a few examples and answers to help you out. Just remember, technology is constantly changing, so what’s current today will be outdated soon. That’s not to say your camera will stop working though! Also, all my recommendations are Canon, because I am more familiar with their line of products. If you are interested in Nikon, just look up their equivalents on their site…they’re a great brand, too.

Example 1: Mom who wants to take better photos of her kids in action, has a budget of $600, wants to use the camera for several years, interested in learning settings, but doesn’t need video. I would recommend the: Canon EOS Digital Rebel XS (a.k.a. 1000D) SLR Black Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55 IS Lens. If her budget was $900 and she wanted HD video capabilities, I’d recommend the: Canon EOS Digital REBEL T2i (a.k.a. 550D) SLR Camera Kit with EF-S 18-55 IS Lens

Example 2: Vacationer who wants a portable camera, has a budget of $300, plans to keep the camera around, not interested in learning settings, would like video but doesn’t need to be HD. I would recommend the: Canon PowerShot D10 Compact Digital Camera, 12 Megapixel, WaterProof to 33 Feet, 3x Optical IS Zoom. It’s even waterproof!

Example 3: Hobbyist who has a budget of $1500 is looking for several year investment, is interested in learning settings, but doesn’t need video. I would recommend the: Canon EOS-50D Digital SLR Camera Body only Kit (without lens) and purchasing the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens to get started. Honestly, though, I’d probably look for a good used original Canon 5D camera–you can find them for about $1000, but it won’t come with a warranty and you’ll have to do your homework. Or, if you’re looking for video and only have a budget of $500, I recommend the Canon PowerShot G11 10.0 Megapixel Digital Camera. It’s not an SLR, but it will give you plenty of room for controlling settings.

Example 4: Enthusiast who has a budget of $2500, is looking for a long-term investment, is interested in learning settings, doesn’t need video. This is a tough one. You could blow all that money on the Canon EOS-5D Mark II Digital SLR Camera body Kit (without lens), but then you’d need to buy some lenses. In the long-term, good lenses will retain their value, while cameras are quickly outdated. In this case, I’d actually recommend looking for a good used Canon 5D camera (it’s full-frame…not cropped like the 5D and 7D), and then using the leftover $1500 to buy a good lens or two: maybe the Canon EF 35mm f/1.4L USM Wide-Angle Camera Lens and the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 USM Lens. Of course, that may take you over your budget, depending on what you pay for the 5D. You could also try finding those lenses used for a lower price.

So, as you can see, there’s not one answer for everyone. The key thing is to find out what you need/want and then do some research. Obviously, what you purchase will be constrained by your budget. Of course, if you have about $15,000-$20,000 lying around, you could just buy everything I’ve got….and this isn’t all of it.