The fact that you are here, reading this means one of two things: You either stumbled across the site while hunting for your manifest destiny, or you are interested in taking up photography as a hobby.

By hobby, I mean that you want to do more with a camera than make family snaps, and vacation memories. You want to express something within you, or preserve something you see and want others to see also. Perhaps you are looking to document some activity you find important, or a place, things, people that will no longer be there some day, perhaps even some day very soon.

If those family snaps are your goal, you don't really need to read this essay, although it will not harm you. All you need is a fully automatic Point & Shoot camera, either film or digital, and you are set. It isn't necessary to learn photography to do snaps. The cameras are designed to take the work out of photography and they are pretty successful at doing so. Lest you think this is a put-down, I assure you, it is not. Not everyone has a passion for pictures. My sister-in-law is a gourmet cook and spends her days preparing multi-course dinners. The most complicated cooking I do involves adding water to cans of soup. What follows is my gourmet recipe for becoming a photographer.

This essay is copyright 2003 by Tony Spadaro - who might even be the famous party of the first part. You, and any other second part party, are authorized by Tony First Party and/or Tony Spadaro to print any or all of the essays in The Camera-ist's Manifesto for your own use and or the use of family or friends. I have kept illustrations down to a minimum to facilitate printing the articles as I feel you can use them more easily if you can carry them along with you when you go out shopping or shooting. What you are not allowed to do, is re-publish this work in any form without express permission of the author, and without the copyright notice. I could go into involved legalisms on the subject, but if you are honourable you will do the right thing, and if you are not, you'll do what you do.

I'm glad you asked that question son, but I'll be damned if I know the answer. I have taught photography, music and several other subjects in my life. I apparently have the "teacher" gene. I always worked one to one with my students in the past but physical problems now make it difficult for me to do much field work. If however, you live near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, USA and would like to take lessons I will be more than happy to work with you in whatever manner I can. In return for my expertise you would be expected to tote equipment, provide a human element, or hold reflectors, etc. I no longer charge money to teach, preferring a much more valuable commodity - time.

While it is possible to learn photography with any camera that provides full manual control, most camera types have drawbacks for the beginner. While nothing is set in stone, I seriously recommend you get a 35mm Single Lens Reflex. Film and processing are relatively cheap in this format. Learning involves using a lot of film. Larger sizes are significantly more expensive. Smaller sizes are terribly limited.

You could just as easily use a rangefinder camera for most of the learning process, but again there are limitations that are very easily elided with a reflex. Digital cameras are, at this writing very expensive. There are a few advantages to using them, and a few dis-advantages. If you have one that allows full manual control it will most certainly do the job. Your next digicam may even make film obsolete - for you.

Please don't. You need not agree with anything I say. You should try other ways, seek other answers, and question anything that strikes you as wrong or stupid. If you strongly disagree with anything I say, please e-mail me. I'm interested in your point of view, and may change mine if you present a good argument. Please don't write to correct my spelling however. Not even the best spell-checkers can fix my spelling.

I try to use as little technical jargon as possible. I also try to make explanations clear without getting into writing mathematical formulas. At times my writing ends up being simplistic, and possibly mis-leading. If an explanation does not work for you, please write and I will try to first make it clearer to you, and then make whatever alterations in the articles to make it clearer to others.

So, if you're ready, lets start right out Selecting Equipment.

Or you can go back to the main Manifesto page.