I’ve always liked exploring new activities — from poetry to public speaking, mountain biking to swimming, golf to, in this case, photography. I also happen to not have a lot of extra money to spend, being a high school student, which means that when I show up to my local golf course with my Goodwill clubs or ride my mountain bike on the street, I get the stares, and occasionally, the “advice” to invest in some proper equipment (usually said in a “I can’t believe you would dare come here without investing two hundred dollars in a proper driver”).

And then I opened up an Instagram, and I decided I didn’t want to use it like Facebook, filling it up with pictures of birthdays and hang outs, rather, I wanted to get into photography.

I have the same situation with photography as I do with most other activities I try out. But I honestly cannot in my right mind spend what little money I have on a thousand dollar DSLR camera that takes oh-so-amazing pictures for my Instagram feed.