Hi there! My Name’s Carl. Thanks for visiting my page. I have always had an interest in photography but not really the means or the knowledge to get started. As a kid we used disposal cameras for class trips or family vacations if we wanted to take any pictures. You might remember those point and click Kodaks that you had to wind after every single picture……that was just the tip of the iceberg for me.
My first “REAL” (and I use that term very loosely) camera was a digital Kodak point and click camera that I bought at the Post exchange for a deployment to Iraq. Very low quality probably didn’t even cost $100 at the time. It did its job for the environment I was in though. I used that for quite a few years at the same time cell phones took over as quality improved and they were attached to everyone’s ear anywhere you went.
Eventually I had started a family, and I wasn’t going into as many austere environments as before. My kids were now doing group activities with their friends. I just didn’t feel like cell phone cameras were capturing the essence of being ‘RIGHT THERE” on the soccer field with them. That’s when I upgraded to a pretty good quality digital camera with a zoom that could reach out there and capture the beads of sweat running down their little faces. This was a Nikon Coolpix P530. I really thought I was hot stuff with that camera in my hands. Picture quality was excellentand I had immediate satisfaction with my results that I could email to family. As with anything else, the desire for more knowledge grasped hold and I went down another rabbit hole of research. That lead me down so many roads that I really didn’t know where to begin. I decided to just jump in headfirst and scoured Facebook marketplace for a used DSLR that was in my price range.
Sticking to the Nikon theme I found a deal on Marketplace for a D3200 with multiple lenses. I have enjoyed getting to know that camera. However, the I quickly realized that the array of lenses that I received with the purchase did not fit the bill for what my intentions were. By this time my daughter was playing flute in marching band and concert band. I needed something that I could zoom right down to the football field during the halftime shows and work in the auditorium under the overhead lighting. I started looking into new better quality lenses.