It’s Exciting to Use Your First Real Camera!
First Real Camera is dedicated to guiding enthusiasts from moving beyond smartphone shots into more involved (and sometimes more advanced) digital cameras. We focus on empowering photographers with guides, honest reviews, and inspiring galleries that foster both technical skill and creative expression.
I’m Chris Brogan and I’m an amateur photographer. I’ve taken photos on and off for 50 years, but like a lot of people (maybe even you?), I stopped for a while, except for just using my phone. And there’s nothing wrong with a smartphone camera, but I wanted to get back to using a “real” standalone camera, so I could put my phone in my pocket and take a breather from the digital storm out there.
Essential Advice for Moving Beyond Smartphone Photography
Throughout, I’ll include some pictures I’ve shot, and some maybe you will share with me.
Mastering Digital Cameras, One Shot at a Time
A little bit more about me and about the premise of this site, plus some disclaimers.
I’m Chris Brogan, and I have no business teaching photography, because I’m an amateur just like you might be. But I will tell you that I like to mess around with cameras, I read a lot, watch a lot of videos about photography, and can often help you learn the parts you most want to understand.
I also have a little YouTube channel, if you like videos.
My grandfather loved to take photos and develop them into slides, and we spent every weekend watching photos he’d taken, viewed on a silver screen via a slide projector in the living room after darkness fell.
My mom took a photography course in school and I helped her stage still life photos and learned to develop black and white film in our little laundry room under red lights. Those chemicals were harsh, but so exotic and to see film develop was really cool.
Currently, I use digital cameras every single day to take photos of architecture, landscape, people, and a whole variety of other topics as they come up.
Disclosures and Sponsorships
Most times, if I put a link up to something you might consider buying, I likely will use an affiliate marketing link. What that means is that if you buy the product from my link, I stand to make a dollar or two (or who knows? Five?) through your purchase from the company who sells the product.
For instance, here’s an affiliate link to Camp Snap cameras. I love them! I have the “pro” on the way. If you buy the camera through this link, I get a dollar or two. That’s it. Nothing fancy.
My integrity is more important than those few bucks. I will only promote things I’ve used and can vouch for. There’s nothing any company can pay me that’s worth more than our interactions here.
If I’m so lucky to do sponsored content with companies, I will clearly state that the material in such a piece is sponsored, and I will explain whatever disclaimers and disclosures relate to that project. I will never let a sponsor guide what I say or don’t say to you. The only way such sponsorships work are if the people who consume that information can trust the reviewer to be honest, good and bad.
Similarly, I will also be clear that I’ve purchased the lion’s share of the camera gear I will talk about here. I often will praise things I’ve bought with my own money because I think you might also like them and want to buy them.
Dear Prospective Sponsors
If you’d like to talk to me about a product you make or distribute, please reach me via the contact form, or email me: chris at chrisbrogan.com . I’ll be happy to discuss whether your product is a fit for the community I have the pleasure to serve.