How many time have you heard a variation of this sentence?

'I want to start taking great photos like professionals do.
I heard something about a Nikon D80 being quite good camera, or a Cannon EOS 50D. Which one do you recommend I get?'
My answer is usually something like this- 'I think a Fugifilm will do just fine.'

It has almost become a fact. When someone want to start learning something new, he has to have the best, newest, most expensive equipment, or else it won't be fun or worth the effort.

How many times have you seeing someone buy a new set of golf clubs, use it once or twice, and since then it's sitting nicely beside the vacuum cleaner in the garage?
I have to admit I never saw anyone like that.
So I'll try to give a better example:
Someone says to himself- I've got to get back into shape. I'll start by running 3 KM a day, and I'll slowly move on to 6, 9, and then maybe 12 KM a day. Well I guess I've got to get my self some good running shoes. So off he goes to his favorite sports store, and tells his great plan to the very helpful sales guy who knows exactly what our guy needs. A pair of the amazing Saucony shoes which are lighter than any other shoe in the market, they are made out of this wonderful new fabric which will never get damaged, no matter what you do to them* (*except if the get wet, burned, cut or left out in the sun), and of course they are great for the distances our guy is planning to run.
There are one or two other choices, Brooks and Asics have great models as well. Want to have a look?

Surprising, that same old guy of ours, has just found interest in a site called eBay. He heard it's a great place to sell second hand or used products.


Look, what I'm trying to say is, you don't always have to get the best most expensive product. Sometimes getting it will only have bad results.
Imagine someone who during his whole life has being using a PC, and then suddenly his parents decided to get him a MAC for his birthday. Poor guy, he won't understand how to turn the thing on. And if he does finally find a way, he will have a very hard time understanding why the machine keep's working for more than 20 minutes without getting stuck or having to press the restart button.

Ok sorry about that. Let's be serious again.
Someone once told me- 'You don't have to be Neil Armstrong to understand how to ride a bike'.
Same thing when we're talking about cameras and photo shooting. You don't have to have the newest Cannon or Nikon in order to shoot great pictures. All you need is nice a nice composite, a basic camera with the option for manual settings, and good imagination.

During our time together, I'll try to explain more about what I mean, and I'll give you tips about how to achieve what I'm talking about.
For all the beginners out there (and it not something bad to be a beginner! on the contrary!),
I'll try to explain all there is to know about cameras, shooting modes, setting, and what it takes to take the best photos without having to buy a new set of golf clubs or a pair of new Brooks.