My starter kit

So over the last 30 days I have acquired some items that I found were wonderful in starting up my new hobby. First being my new lens, he Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. My Canon 30D came with the kit lens which is an 18mm-55mm f/3.5-5.6. It is a good lens but it is an amazing what a difference the 50mm lens makes. I bought this lens after discussing some options with my friend, who takes photos for a living. It is great because it is not as costly as most of the lenses out there, you can find it on Amazon for about $100.00-$120.00.
With the purchase of this lens I also bought a lens cleaning kit. I had my Canon for almost 4 years and have never cleaned the lenses before, like I stated this is all new to me. I bought the pen kit and found it quite easy to use. I also went on You Tube to find out how to clean my lenses properly. Here are the videos that I found most helpful.

Lens Cleaning

Sensor Cleaning


My next step was to learn more about how to use the camera I have, for that I turned yet again to Google and Pinterest (aw the power of the internet).  Here is the site I have found most useful. They have everything thing you could possibly be looking for and then some.

Digital Photography School

and a cheat sheet I found helpful as well.

Now with that down I was on for some picture taking and experimenting.