A farewell to my first camera.
Photography gear can be extremely expensive. But that doesn’t mean you can’t achieve incredible results with an amateur camera.
For me, it all started with my dad. No matter where we went, he’d carry his camera, capturing every moment he could. After every vacation, he’d spend hours – no, days – at the computer, piecing together video collages on MovieMaker. Even now, he still does it.
That’s where my love for photography began.
Growing up, we never had high-end cameras. Just a few analog ones, later some compact digital ones. But I always dreamed of having my own DSLR. I didn’t know anything about photography back then – nothing about exposure, ISO, aperture – but I just knew I wanted to explore that world. For years, I kept asking for one.
Finally, on my 18th birthday, I got my first DSLR: a Canon 750D with its kit lens, the EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 IS STM. At first, I didn’t know where to start. i shot everything in automatic mode. I loved taking photos, but I didn’t really understand what I was doing. My high school thesis was even about photography, but between school and friends, I didn’t have much time to learn. Or at least, it was not a priority back then. Then university came along, and things only got busier. For about a year and a half, I didn’t touch my camera at all. It sat at my parents’ house while I was away at school.
Then COVID happened. Like so many people, it changed my life. Before that, I didn’t really know what I wanted to do. During lockdown, I reconnected with my passion for motorsport – a passion that had been there all along, but had somehow gotten lost. As an Italian, I grew up watching Michael Schumacher dominate in a Ferrari and Valentino Rossi light up MotoGP. When I was in high school, I stopped following motorsport (everyone around me was obsessed with football), but during COVID, it all came flooding back.
The first chance I got, I went to Maranello to watch Ferrari testing. And, of course, I had to bring my camera. I spent the week before obsessively watching YouTube tutorials and reading articles on how to properly use it. My goal was clear: I was going to shoot in manual mode, no excuses. That day wasn’t easy – I made plenty of mistakes – but it made me fall in love with photography all over again.
Fast forward to now, and every photo you see on this website (as of January 2025) has been taken with that same "amateur" camera. Over the years, I upgraded my lenses to the best of my ability – the 70-200mm f/4 and the 50mm f/1.8 – but the camera body stayed the same. Last week, I finally sold my beloved 750D. It was bittersweet, but it was time for an upgrade. I invested in a new camera body, and I can’t wait to see where this next step in my journey takes me.
I’m incredibly critical of my work (what photographer isn’t?). If you asked me how many of my photos I truly love, I could probably count them on one hand. But that’s okay. Photography, for me, has never been about perfection. It’s about capturing moments, telling stories, and growing with every shot I take.
So, to anyone who feels like their gear isn’t good enough or that they don’t know enough yet – just keep going. Sometimes, what you create with “just a basic camera” turns out to be far from basic at all.
