What next? Advice tips for the newbie please!

As the title goes, what advice would you give to a newbie?

Bought the K10D mainly to add to my collection of gadgets, but have now seriously caught the bug!

Bought the Sigma 70-300mm mainly because of the offer in Jessops brought the price down, also added the grip a couple of weeks later because they still let me have it for £99.99.

Have since added the Manfrotto tripod, and a Tamrac rucksack, and a monopod, and already I have noticed that this is one of those hobbies that can seriously damage the wallet!!

So the main question is what next?

Would like to obviously keep the spending down, but at the same time, would like to be taking better photos. Our recent trip to Brighton for the London to Brighton run for example saw me taking over 1,000 shots, but not many 'keepers', mainly due I believe to my lack of experience!

Simple mistakes here were obvious. For example took loads of shots of the bi-planes as they flew past, to find out most of the shots had marks on them (lack of cleaning was the obvious answer!), and most of the shots of the cars were nowhere near as sharp as I would have liked, but not sure if that was me, or my basic lenses.

Where next to go from here? I have loads of questions, such as should my next step be to read a damn good book, or just get out there and experiment more? Should I invest in better lenses, or are they good enough, and I'm not? What are the best items to buy for cleaning purposes? Should I be looking at a flashgun yet, or leave it until I know better what I'm doing? Have I missed out something so blatantly obvious that even a 3yr old would know? Should I 'go back to the basics' and buy some old manual lenses cheap on ebay to get some better experience of photography in general?

That's nowhere near an exhaustive list of course, and I know we all have to start somewhere! So, what would you recommend, where did you start, what did you find helped to greatly improve your shots etc.

As usual, all advice greatly appreciated!

Regards

Unlocker

Welcome.

Both of your lenses are perfectly good to start with. If your images are not sharp, find out why, and fix it.

The first thing I would do (and did) would be to use only the centre spot for focussing, at least then you know where you are focussing. Turn the dial on the right hand clockwise to centre spot.

Then, although I prefer not to use it, you might just set the P mode to normal in custom settings, and shoot a number of test images in P mode.

Then take a close look at them and determine if they are sharp or not. For these tests, you have a tripod, use it. Turn SR off for tripod mounted camera.

Your local library will help with reading material. Get anything you can and be inspired by the photo's and how they were obtained.

Whatever you do, don't waste large sums of money on more equipment until you can get the best out of what you have.

Good luck & regards,

The first mistake many novices make is thinking that they can buy thier way to great photos. "what equipment should I buy?" (wrong question more often than not)

You can of course, buy perfect shots if you hire a pro to take the photos for you.

Failing that, just take your time, and learn to use what you got. "I shot this image, under these circumstances, with this equipment, at these settings, and was dissapointed because of this...What can I do to improve on these results?" (right question, more often than not).

Learn as much about photography, as you can and develop the skills and eye of a pro. As you get from where you are now to where you want to be, you will find the limits and faults of the equipment you now have, and you'll know what your specific needs are when making your next purchase.

Join your local camera club/photographic society and put some pics into their competitions and listen to the judge's comments.

Hello there,

If the K10D is your first DSLR try using it on auto (green setting) for a while to get used to the way the autofocus works. If you take your time nearly all your shots should be sharp. But, the best way to learn how it works is to keep playing with it. Take the same shot with a variety of different settings and compare the differences.

Don't let all the bells and whistles put you off. I would reckon there are quite a few features that even the most experienced won't use.

Enjoy!