For a period of time in my youth I fully expected to mature into an illustrator for children’s books. I found that pencils and charcoal were my favored tools, and I set about building my skills in the craft. The work was hard and I felt I was plateauing in mediocrity, increasing my doubts that I would ever manage to achieve the goals that I had set for myself. I perceived photography as an “easy” art form that I could comprehend, so I set about purchasing my first SLR to try out photography.

I had played with cameras in the past and found moments within my point-and-shoot use where I felt genuinely moved by some of the photographs I managed to capture, but I felt limited by the tools and wanted to improve the quality of my work. I took many photos with my 35mm SLR camera but the cost of processing the film frustrated my learning speed, so I was very pleased when I was able to afford a digital camera. While my first digital camera was only 2 megapixels and a point-and-shoot, I grew much in my understanding of laying out a scene and trying different angles because I could immediately see the results of my work on the back of the camera. I quickly grew frustrated by the limitations of the image quality and hoped for a chance to get something better, which eventually came in the form of a much-better digital SLR.

One way I was able to achieve these goals was by working for one-hour film processors and camera retailers that offered discounts to employees; some of the equipment I still own was purchased during those years. I was a horrible camera sales associate, but I appreciated being able to be around cameras and see the various ways the manufacturers improved the cameras each year. I noticed a continual drop in build quality and features in the low-end point-and-shoot models; combined with my desire to finally purchase a digital SLR, I began to have a heavy disdain for many of the cheap models the general public purchased.

I think I made the right decision to pursue an SLR, but I missed out on the convenience of the point-and-shoot with my continued disdain for those models. With the advantage of time, I was able to look back at some of the better point-and-shoots that I missed, find one used at a terrific price, and get started on taking the random photos I would’ve been disappointed with if taken from my cellphone.

The following photos were taken on a Canon PowerShot SX150 IS using the CHDK firmware to enable RAW shooting. In an indictment of the photo quality of my iPhone 13 mini, this camera takes pictures that I like, even if I have to put more effort into importing them into my Apple Photos collection. While I haven’t taken the next award-winning photograph with this camera, I have enjoyed being able to have something readily available that doesn’t look threatening or suspicious and ends up taking a photo I might want to share with someone.