My experience, equipment, and a sample
I lived in Europe many years ago and hired a photographer there to take pictures of things that I wanted to paint. She never seemed to get the contrast and color or angle that I needed, so I bought a good Canon camera and started taking my own pictures. These days I'm a videographer, but I want to take my photography to the next level and add it to the services I offer. I have helped another photgrapher at two weddings and I've done a couple of other events, but I feel I need to know more about photography before I go any farther. I love taking pictures of wildlife, gardens, people, the local area - anything.
I still have my original Canon (film camera) and then I bought a Canon Rebel XT. I enjoyed that and have recently purchased a Canon 30D. I already have my sites on a Canon 5D or a 1D. A little rich for my blood right now - can't really justify the expense until I've shown myself that I know what I'm doing with the equipment I have. I like to shoot in manual, but my weakness is using a flash and getting my white balance right. Of course, the fact that I'm trying to keep the camera focused when I'm looking through a tiny little hole in the camera that's about a half inch by a half inch doesn't seem any too easy either.
Ah, well. I hope that helps. I have a website that shows a little bit of my work -
http://www.logcabinstudios.tv
Shelley