Photography was my first passion. I've always loved taking candid photos and landscape photos. Photography is what brought me to scrapbooking because I needed to have something to do with all those photos!
In 2007, I finally got my first SLR camera (single lens reflex). I currently use a Canon Rebel XT. There have been several model replacements since I purchased mine, but it's still working just fine for me. (This is the introductory model to SLRs. And frankly, it's good enough for the vast majority of hobby photographers. I'd say to save the money on the camera body and save for lenses rather than buying an upgraded body (the camera itself w/o the lens is called the body)).
I shoot the majority of my photos with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. This is the entry level model for this lens, but it works just fine for me. If you have $500 to spend, you can get the fancier ones, but for a budget of about $125, this is a very good lens.
For the last 4 months, I've been shooting all my photos in RAW (a mode the camera uses in which it captures all the data and records it as data rather than an image. This gives you much more ability for correction in editing). It slowed the camera down a little bit and it is more time consuming to transfer the files, but it is has incredible value. You can also shoot your pictures in RAW + JPEG (which is when the camera records the information AND processes it into an image (the jpeg)). However, this takes up a LOT of memory card and harddrive space.
I edit every picture I print (or share) using Photoshop Elements (because I shoot RAW I have to so I can save it from the data into an image. But even when I shot JPEG, I still post-processed every image). I use PhotoShop Elements 9 for this.
If you want to read more about photography, Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson is a fantastic read. Lots of fantastic information that is presented in a way that is easy to understand and even entertaining. Definitely worth the money and time to read it.
