Photography for college students
By Rachel Stevenson
8 Dec 2008
As i sit here and write about having a tight budget and wanting to be a photographer, i come to the idea that i may have something to contribute to the community that may be worth while.
As college students we are well a wear that we need to think about our tuition, our health and where our next meal is coming from so sometimes our photography has to play second fiddle, not to worry, anything is possible as long as you think of creative and new innovative ways of doing things with the supplies and the budget you have.
So lets start with the basics, hopefully if you are reading this then you are already a member of the JPGMAG community and have a love of photography but may or may not have a camera with which to take pictures with, thats where places like Ebay and Craig's lists come in, these two websites can be very useful when searching for equipment at an affordable price, often used and have already been broken in cameras from these websites are readily available for a college student to buy and or look at to see what they want in a camera.
However if you are really tight on cash and only have two dollars to your name, trust me i have been there and done that, then perhaps a stroll over to your local communications department at your college is in order. Some colleges allow students to loan out equipment for their own enjoyment and or school work although you are limited to a short period of time with the equipment, at most i have seen is 24 -48 hours at some colleges. You at least have access to a camera. if those ideas do not work there's always the holidays and asking family members to contribute to buying a camera.
Keep in mind that you don't need a fancy DSLR to be a photographer, starting out with a point and shoot camera will suffice, and currently a point and shoot camera can be gotten for 99 dollars if you look around and do plenty of research. An understanding of the basics with a an inexpensive camera can prove quite useful so you are ready to upgrade to a bigger camera when the time comes.
Now, for those of you who already have a camera but are wondering how to take a great shot without all the expense of a tripod, try this on for size, use what you already have in your dorm room and in your parents house! i realized when i first moved into my own apartment that i had all the tools i needed right at my finger tips in order to get a good shot without a tripod, i used textbooks and various other supplies to include my wallet in order to obtain the angle i wanted for a certain picture.
If this sounds like a lot of work, well let me be the first to tell you it is! and good for you for trying it out, a lot of thought will have to be given to your tools and which supplies to use in order to get the perfect angle. Be creative use books, magazines wallets anything that will allow you to get the desired look for your photo.
The photos within this article are photos that i myself took using two rather large books and my wallet, i myself used a amish romance novel that i had just finished up with as well as grim's fairy tales which is also a rather big book, these two books gave me the added height i needed to get the shot i wanted for my own self portraits.
if my idea dose not suit your fancy feel free to experiment, perhaps you will come up with a better solution to the tight budget group. but please remember, even the greats had to start somewhere.
2 responses
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Michael Adams gave props (9 Dec 2008):
Great ideas. Thanks for sharing your experiences here!
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John Edwin May said (10 Jan 2009):
A long tube sock filled with beans or rice works great and is much more stable. Uncooked of course…
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