Where to start? YouTube?

My introduction into the world of photography was by no means intentional. I’m still good friends with my mates from school; some of them I’ve known for over 20 years. As is often the case with lads, we never took any pictures, and there were no good photos of us. I was chatting with someone about one of my school friends, and they asked what he looked like, and I had to go to his LinkedIn profile for a picture. At that point, I realised it was time I took more photos.

I bought an Olympus point-and-shoot film camera and took it with me to events, and people liked my photos. With all the positive feedback and encouragement, I thought I should take this more seriously.

But where do you start when you know nothing? YouTube, of course. Thankfully, among all the “10 photography mistakes ruining your photos,” I found Teo Crawford’s A Beginner Guide for 35mm Film Photography and Cody Mitchell’s 9 Years of Camera Setting Knowledge in 29 Minutes. Both are great videos for anyone starting out.

I am also reading Henry Carroll’s “Read this if you want to take great photos” and “Read this if you want to take great photographs of people.” These cover the same topics as the videos but in more detail and with pictures included to highlight the points made.