I definitely still regard myself as a nifty novice when it comes to photography! I bought my first DSLR camera around 7 years ago, a Sony A55, thinking that I would be snapping away brilliant photos in no time, of course I thought that it would be easy and with a few quick you tube videos I’d be flying. But that didn’t happen for me. I never actually got myself off Automatic mode with the fancy shmancy camera. I’ve travelled all over with it, had it swinging and banging off my chest on massive hikes in Italy, lost the lens cap more than a few times in streams in Cyprus and then finally it gave up in Krakow after 4 years of misuse and I laid it in a drawer and moved on to another Sony, this time the A3000 which I have used for the last 3 years, again, Automatic mode (I’m still annoyed with myself!).

It’s just laziness on my part, I kept thinking I would put time aside and learn how to get on to manual mode, but the photos, to me, seemed really good quality and I wasn’t entirely sure how I could ever make them any better. But of course I love photos (other people’s) and seeing how glorious they look always made me feel like my own were severely lacking. The colours not right, the vibrancy lack lustre, of course I also hadn’t discovered Lightroom at this point.

So at the beginning of the year I decided I wanted to downsize to something more travel friendly. I wanted to be able to pop the camera in my bag or coat pocket and be able to easily take it anywhere but still take amazing quality photos, so when I walked past CeX shop (I have zero idea how they are pronouncing that one) and I spotted a couple of smaller cameras in the window, I just felt drawn in to have a look. We had spent quite a bit of time in shops like John Lewis handling the cameras like Olympus PEN, Fujifil X-A20, Lumix DC-GX9 and Sony A5100, there were so many to choose from and many with chunky price tags. I’d also spotted the Sony RX100 and really liked the feel of it and Martin had already seen it recommended and read more reviews and it seemed like a good choice, especially as a point and shoot camera.

So I wanted to think it over and decide if that’s what I wanted and that’s when we walked past CeX. Like I said they had a very small selection of smaller cameras, but lo and behold, there sat a Sony RX100, almost new, with a 2 year warranty and it was in mint condition. I came out the shop, I didn’t want to be too hasty. I wasn’t sure if I wanted a used camera, but it just seemed too much of a coincidence to ignore. I was going to leave it until the morning and if I still wanted it, go and get it, so we went for a coffee around the corner and I’d taken a sip, I put the cup down and raced back to the shop in case it was sold in the 10 minutes I’d been away! The lovely lady who was working in the shop charged it up for me so I could have a good look at it and make sure everything was as it should be (of course it was) and I bought it. It cost me just £170, which I thought was an absolute bargain.

I also sorted myself out with Adobe CC and got Lightroom, the absolute best thing I’ve done!

This was one of the very first photos I took with my new camera, taken on Calton Hill, Edinburgh.

So now that I have downsized cameras and have started to actually pay attention to tutorials, shooting in Raw and have Lightroom to tinker with the images, I feel like I’m finally starting to improve. Over the years I have worked on my composition, so I do think that has improved, but now I have the proper tools to really enhance my images and it’s so exciting.

I’m also finally making use of Manual mode, that’s right, Manual mode on my dinky Sony RX100 (which thankfully I should be able to use on my Sony A3000 if I fancy taking that out for a spin again!).

The photo above of Aphrodite Rock in Paphos was the first photo I took on Manual Mode – I don’t think I did too badly for a beginner!

Again, trying out Manual mode at the UFO Bridge in Bratislava.

YouTube is an absolute treasure trove of information, I have learned a lot in the last few weeks, now that I’ve actually set that time aside and using it to learn more about the camera. I’ve got my camera set up to make using Manual mode that little easier, I know how to set the shutter speed, the f stop and ISO and I’m about to go get myself a little travel tripod as I’m dying to try out some longer exposures on waterfalls and also try and capture the night sky. I think for the first time in a long time, I’m really enjoying taking photos and it’s making me think more and more about my composition and the use of great light.

I initially started off with the DSLR because I wanted better photos of my food. I’d just started to learn to cook and wanted to share recipes and my ancient digital camera wasn’t up to much, but it’s taken me a whole 7 years to finally get myself onto Manual mode and I love it!

So, if like me, you want a camera that you can take pretty much everywhere with you but want something that’s friendly to the wallet, then I’d definitely recommend the Sony RX100 to begin with and get yourself Lightroom too, it’s a lot of fun to learn and does wonders to your images!

Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m back off the YouTube for some more tutorials and then getting out there and taking photos!

** This is not an advert and all the opinions are my own.