Over the next two weeks, I am going to be stripping my camera down the the “stock” format. That means I will be using the 18-55mm F3.5-5.6 kit lens and nothing else. I want to challenge myself to see what I have learned and see if it really is worth buying lenses that are over several thousand dollars each.

Of course for for my “professional” photo shoot’s I am going to use my better lenses, but for everything else, I am going to try and stick to the factory default. I don’t know what I ultimately hope to get out of this, but I do hope that it will be worthwhile.

Photography has become a huge hobby for me. It lets me capture the moment and be creative at the same time. It has given me an excuse to get out of my apartment and away from my computer, at least until I have to upload the pictures and edit them in post production.

My cousin David is the one that got me dive deep into photography when he purchased the Canon EOS Rebel T2i. I had been only mildly into photography with point & shoot cameras before then, but once I got to play with his digital single lens reflect camera, I was hooked. I wanted to get one for myself. So for my birthday I purchased the older version of the same line, the Canon EOS Rebel T1i. It has generally the same features minus the extensive video modes that the T2i has and it is 15 Mega-pixels as opposed to 18 Mega-pixels. It was also about $200 cheaper and had a really good sale on for a bunch of accessories for free with the T1i.

Since October, I have taken almost 10,000 pictures and have learned so much about photography that some times I feel like my head is going to explode. I have also spent well over $2,000 in additional lenses and accessories for my camera. It is not a cheap hobby in the least, but very enjoyable. I started off with the purchase of some filters and other tiny things before going out with my cousin and buy my first lens other than the 18-55mm “Kit” lens that came with the camera. The new lens was the 75-300mm f/3.5-5.6 USM by Canon. It was fairly inexpensive and would let me get some great shots from far away.

Since then I have also purchased the 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6 IS and the 50mm f/1.4 USM. Since then I have learned that the lower the “f” the more light that comes in and the more stable my shots will be. Because of this, there are some other lenses that I would LOVE to have to be able to shot in lower light situation. There are a couple other things that I would like as well. I have put together a small wish list in order of what I will purchase next.

Wish list:

1. ES-71II Hood for 50mm f/1.4
2. EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM
3. EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM
4. Canon 60D Body
5. EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 L IS USM
6. Speedlite 580EX II