A Year with My A6000
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Sony A6000 is my first camera which I bought with my own money and I put all effort for it. It was last year when I claimed it as mine. I bought it as a birthday gift for myself. No, don’t get me wrong, it’s not because everybody forgot my birthday (I even don’t care about it), but I did it to appreciate what I’ve done so far.
I’m proud of myself and I know the one who should appreciate more for my fight is myself.
With all money I had (from working as laboratory assistant, winning some competitions, and saving my monthly allowance), I decided to buy a camera. I wanted to improve my skill, yas I actually knew that gear is not the most important thing to take photos, but if I have enough money, why not trying to challenge myself with the new thing?
At the time actually I didn’t too understand what specifications should I notice when buying a camera. Then I asked for my friend who’s expert enough in photography, I told my budget and my options. At first, actually I didn’t think will get A6000 because my money is about a 2/3 of its new price. My friend recommended me to take A6000 because it has many better features compared with another brand. So, he recommended me to searched for a secondhand camera. He also told me the things I should pay attention to when buying it, especially Shutter Count. Shutter count is the calculation of how much pictures have been taken from that camera, or in other word how long the camera has been worked?
Days passed, one of my daily routine was opening Facebook and another marketplace to search it. Once I became so pessimist because I didn’t get the price below my money, or if any, the camera condition is not too good.
The day came. I’ve found someone who sold the camera in the price which click with my budget, and it was in a good condition. If I’m not mistaken, the shutter count number is about 2000. Bang Wisnu, the seller, told me that he had upgraded his gear so that he sold it with the cheap price (he had so many cameras and I thought he is a crazy rich photographer haha). That day, on May 5th 2019, I went to Bekasi to make the transaction. All along the road I just keep praying and hoping that Bang Wisnu is a kind and honest person. Thankfully, God listened to my prayer. So, that day, I went home (to Bogor) with a new -secondhand- camera. I didn’t tell anyone about this, even my family. I just wanted to listened to myself and gave freedom to myself as a reward.
Yeah, that’s the history. My first year with the camera was special, and I hope in the next years we would get much more amazing moments. My most memorable part is when I joined Ekspedisi Batas Negeri (Indonesian Borderline Expedition) team, we explored the biodiversity and social-culture in Marore island. I spent about 3 weeks there and I took so much picture (even actually I’m not too satisfied with my shot because I still didn’t know the setting so well).
However, I’ve learned so much with this camera, I’ve got some great photos (in my opinion), and also much more bad photos. But it’s okay, I knew it’s a progress. And, I trust in progress.
Moreover, I make photography as a hobby, not my job. I do my hobby as a fun, so even I got a blurred or beyond-expectation photo, still I get happiness from pressing the shutter. It’s such my healing and stress reliever.
Here I show you some photos I took with my beloved camera (A6000 + lenskit 16–50mm). Btw, I had a name for the camera, I called it Pam.
That’s the beginning of my story with Pam, of course next time I’ll write another story about my opinion and experiences in photography. Feel free to discuss anything and thanks for reading!
