Our third Tuesday Takeover post is also the final instalment into Lydia Kuniholm’s story, where she continues to share her photography journey. Lydia started by telling us about her Petri Film Camera Here and then we learned about her journey with a Nikon D50 Here.

Your Camera Takes Great Photos!” – Nikon D200 and Nikon D750

After gifting my Nikon D50 camera to my father, I moved to the Nikon D200, which I used for over 10 years. I bought it because it had a reputation for being rugged and it came with a nice price tag. At about this time, I also started investing (and I MEAN investing as lenses will take a bite out of your wallet!) in lenses. I learned that buying the most open lens I could afford was worth it and a good investment. I got used to carrying around more and more equipment, and got to know which lens would work best in various shooting environments.

I used the Nikon D200 successfully while participating in two photography workshops with professional photographers at the end of 2019, one in Ladakh and one in Bangladesh. My photography mentors were quite pleased with my work. Although it was not a full format camera and had just 10.2 megapixels, it served me very well for years. 

I left my salaried career as an academic in July of 2019 to pursue writing and photography. After treating myself to two photography workshops, I finally replaced my Nikon D200 with a Nikon D750, giving me a full format camera with 24.93 megapixels. I am restricted to my two lenses that are compatible with this camera, my 20mm wide angle and my 50mm lens, which seem to be enough for me at the moment as I travel.

Nikon D750 DSLR Camera with 24-120mm Lens

So, the next time someone tells you “Your camera takes great photos!”, smile and accept the compliment gracefully. What they might be trying to say is they admire the technical lessons you have mastered over years and years of shooting and reviewing your work; your fine eye for composition; the interesting subject matter you have chosen to document; and the smart choices you have made in lenses  –  all of which are just a few of the many elements that go into a “great photo”.