The one thing that stopped me from using a real camera for YEARS

This post is brought to you by Fujifilm and their X-A3 camera. All opinions, as always, are my own!

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We’ve lived in our house for almost six years (!!!), so for almost six years, I’ve watched our next-door neighbour meander around with a real big-girl camera.

She just always looked so professional with this big camera hanging on a strap around her neck. I’d hear the little click-click-click sound that I naturally associate with a “good” and “real” camera.

(Meanwhile I’m over there tapping my iPhone’s digital shutter button and maybe hearing a little “ch-chhh!” fake camera click. If my phone isn’t on silent.)

And when I saw her finished photos later on? I would be blown away by the difference. Sometimes she’d take my kids’ photos, too, and they would automatically be my favourites. Their hair, their eyes, the sunlight in the background — EVERYTHING looked a million times better than my sad little iPhone photos.

But still, for almost six years, I did not upgrade to a real camera.

(The last camera I owned was a tiny point-and-shoot that I abandoned once my smartphone cameras had more megapixels — or whatever we used to say, back in point-and-shoot days of yore.)

I stubbornly continued to take ALL of our family photos (and my WORK photos) on my iPhone.

For one important reason.

Timing.

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You see, my neighbour’s photos were STUNNING. There was no denying that. She is crazy talented

She is crazy talented AND she was using a quality camera, so they blew my iPhone photos out of the kiddie pool (which we’d both be photographing as our kids played).

She would take dozens of beautiful photos of our kids splashing around together in the backyards — crouching down and tilting the camera to get the best possible angle.

I would half-heartedly lean over from my lawn chair and snap a couple on my iPhone. Then I’d sit back and upload a couple of the best ones to Facebook or Instagram, and pass her the phone to take a look.

“Those are great! Can you text them to me?” she’d sometimes ask.

Why did she want my only-OK iPhone photos?
Because they were IMMEDIATE.

They were photos she could text or share right away.
Not beautiful photos trapped in her camera.

It would usually be weeks before she sat down with her camera, the connect-y cord and her laptop to start the arduous process of transferring everything off her memory card. The photos would certainly be great when they eventually got on social media, but the immediacy was lost.

It was a long, annoying process she didn’t care to do very often.

And that’s what convinced me I wasn’t cut out for a “real” camera.

I needed the ability to snap some photos and get them onto social media, in a text, in an email for work, etc. RIGHT AWAY.

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So when I attended an ECM Media workshop earlier this year and our fantastic instructor, Matt Corkum from Fade to White Photography, told me there was a camera that would do exactly that, I was intrigued.

Enter the Fujifilm X-A3 …

Fujifilm was kind enough to send me a gorgeous pink X-A3 in exchange for me sharing a bit about how to use it. Thank you, Fujifilm! 

So, since getting the photos OFF a camera was what kept me from getting a camera for so many years, this feels like a natural place to start.

I’m going to walk you through how easy (and fast) it is to take photos from your REAL camera and zap them over to your smartphone for sharing, posting, texting, etc.

STEP 1: Open the Fujifilm Camera Remote app on your smartphone

STEP 2: When you’re in view mode (looking at photos, rather than taking them) hit the MENU/OK button on the camera twice.

(It’s once for the playback menu, and once more to select “Wireless Communication)

STEP 3: Select the camera’s network

Your camera will be like “This phone cool? We know this person?”

“Yup, they’re good!” you reply as you hit “MENU/OK.”

STEP 4: Click “Receive” in the app to immediately scroll through all of your photos.

When you see one you want to send to your phone, just hit “MENU/OK.”

STEP 5: The photos you selected are MAGICALLY in your phone’s camera roll.

Share on social, text them, email them — whatever you want!

Being able to take GOOD photos on a REAL camera has been a gamechanger. I’m still working my way through all of the features — especially the intricacies of the lens, shutter speed, white balance, etc. — but I can already see such a difference in my photos.

(Like the ones in yesterday’s post!)

I needed a real camera, and I’m glad the good folks at Fujifilm invented a way for (impatient) people like me to take great pictures AND be able to share them instantly.

Next time I’m going to share my secrets for how to easily back up important photos.

(Well, ANY photos, actually — if I go through my photo folders, I find plenty of random screenshots. That’s how I remind myself to buy/do/ask something, since I’m always scrolling through my camera roll.)

Happy photo-taking!

(Saying “Happy shooting” just didn’t feel right. You know?)