In early January I bought a new camera because I’d been wanting to play around with a “real” camera for a while and it seemed like a good time to do so. I ended up getting a Pentax K-50 from Amazon Warehouse deals because it was a really good price for a camera that has good reviews from all the relevant camera blogs and sites. Plus Pentax being the underdog in the market to Nikon and Canon makes it kind of fun.

I won’t go into a full review here since there’s many of them already out there from people much more knowledgeable than me. Some of my favorite features so far are that the body and kit lenses are weather sealed which lets me not have a heart attack every time they get a bit wet or muddy, it’s compatibility with every Pentax K-mount lens made which means I can pick up cheap manual focus primes, and that it’s image stabilization is in body so that even those old lenses benefit from it.

I’m constantly learning and getting better at choosing which photos to take (framing and positioning), the technical aspect of taking the photo (selecting the proper settings in camera), and post processing in Lightroom. If this continues I’ll look back at these pictures and notice all kinds of flaws and wish I’d taken them differently. But for now I’m happy with them and think they look pretty good.