It seems like everybody owns an expensive DSLR these days, if you don’t, stay tuned, as this is the first in a short series on one of my all-time favourite pastimes: buying photographic equipment.

The first thing I’d like to get out of the way is this: the camera doesn’t really matter. That’s right, the camera doesn’t really matter. What does matter is the eye behind the camera. If you cannot make interesting photographs with a cheap compact or a 3 megapixel camera phone, then you will never make interesting photographs with a 36 megapixel DSLR and $10K worth of lenses. Point is, a good photographer can make interesting images regardless of the camera used.

Now that that is out of the way, let’s continue.

A few short years ago there were really only two choices about cameras to make: Compact Cameras, or DSLR. There was a significant jump in size, cost, and image quality between the two choices. These days, however, we have roughly four distinct camera categories; Camera Phones (yes I do believe phones are worthy of discussion), Compact Cameras, Mirrorless Cameras and DSLRs.

So which one is right for you? That’s what I’d like to help you with in these posts. I won’t be discussing specifics of certain brands and models of cameras, instead I plan on focussing on global concepts of camera types and what their strengths are. Today I will discuss the types of things you should be thinking about when deciding on a camera type, in subsequent posts, I will discuss the different camera types I have listed above. There are 4 things that need some thought; subject, budget, size, and volume.

Subject.
Give some thought to the type of shooting you think you will be doing. Think about the subjects you want to make pictures of: kids and family, pets, products, food, people, travel, sports, wildlife, landscapes, architecture , etc. Unfortunately, there aren’t any hard and fast rules about subject and camera type, but some camera types do work better than others in certain shooting conditions.

Budget.
This is something that doesn’t really need to be discussed, as this is something most people automatically think of when making a purchase. However, it does come into play when one has say, $2,000 to spend on a DSLR system, I would suggest that you should always buy better lenses over a better camera body, always.

Size.
Size is something that is easy to overlook, these days it’s hard not to pour over the technical numbers of cameras, and forget this simple aspect: if a camera is to big and heavy for you to take out on the type of shooting you like to do, then what’s the point in wasting all that money on it?

Volume.
What I mean is this: how much are you going to shoot? If you shoot a lot of one subject over another, consider a camera type that would be good for the majority of the shooting you will be doing, the fact is that most cameras can shoot just about everything — to a point.

I hope this should get you thinking towards the type of camera that is right for you. I will discuss each camera type and how they relate to the above factors in further detail, along with a few more factors to consider. In part two I will discuss Camera Phones and Compact Cameras, see you then.

Three weeks ago they welcomed baby Jet (how cool is that name?) into their lives and yesterday we went over to meet him and capture a few photos. I fell instantly and irrevocably in love with him – how could you not? Look at him!

He is a truly wonderful little guy and his expressions are priceless. Congratulations Nekolina and Grand – he is fantastic!

Simon’s Papa is an avid curler, it runs in the family – his Grandad has been curling for 70 years! – so they wanted some photos of Simon with some curling rocks that have been passed down. They were so much bigger than he was, so cute.

Welcome little Simon!

No, seriously.

In celebration of our second year we are going to photograph one lucky couple’s wedding for free!

What do you get?
-a full day with two photographers
-an online gallery of selected photos within 24 hours of the event that you can share
-10 8×10 prints of your choice
-at least 100 post processed images and all of your images (high resolution and copyright free) on a DVD
-an online print gallery
-5 year DVD replacement (if your photos are lost, stolen or destroyed we will give you a new DVD)

How do you get it?
1. Book your wedding photos with us.
2. Like our Facebook fan page.
3. Tell us why you should win. We want to hear your story.

The rules:
1. You must be getting married by Dec 31, 2013
2. You must be getting married in Calgary or the surrounding area

That’s it. Pretty awesome huh? So what are you waiting for?

If you have any questions please contact us at info@millarandmillar.com.

We have to admit that we were pretty worried about the weather for the wedding we were shooting this weekend. All week long the temperatures we hovering in the low -30 range (-50 with the wind chill) and we were obsessively checking the weather online to see what was going to happen.

It was beautiful! Not +20 beautiful but clear and crisp with just the right amount of snow. Perfect!

Katharine and Rodney are such a great couple and it was so wonderful to be a part of their lives for the past year. We wish them the very best for the future as they continue their lives together!

Here are a few of our favorites from Saturday.

This January we have been blessed with unseasonably mild weather so we were able to shoot both inside and outside with them. It was a little crisp outside but Nekolina was completely unfazed by it and showed us her tummy in the sun.

Nekolina and Grand don’t know if they are having a boy or a girl and are being very secretive about names – we know what their choices are but we aren’t telling! You will just have to wait until he/she arrives.

We can’t wait until February when Baby Lau Lau will join us!

From APhotoEditor

Now I rest.