How I Shoot

A friend wanted some info on what type of hardware/software I use when shooting, so I'm going to give a little rundown.

Right now I shoot with a Canon EOS 50D. I have to say that I LOVE my camera. It is my first SLR camera, so I can't really judge it against any others. I got it in March. Typically I shoot in manual mode. I shoot in MM because, I need to learn how to use my camera correctly and it's nice to be able to manipulate things like that. When I'm shooting children in a place where the lighting varies (outside) I sometimes shoot in Av, which is aperture mode. I really like messing with depth of field when taking portraits, so that's more important to me when trying to take a quick photo. Right now I only shoot in M and Av unless my professor specifically tells me to shoot in Tv or something like that. When I finish school, I would like to upgrade to the EOS 5D Mark II.

As far as lenses go, I have three right now. My favorite is my 50mm f/1.8. I like to shoot with a wide aperture and this lens is great in low light situations. It's also very cheap (as lenses go). I think I got it for about $85. I would like to buy the better quality 50mm f/1.4 eventually. It is about $400. The other lense I use often is my EF-S 55-250 f/4-5.6. It's a decent quality lens. The third lens is my EF-S 18-55mm. It's more like a kit lens and I'm often unhappy with the quality of pictures I get from it.

I have two speedlites right now, the 550EX and the 430EX II. The 430 EX II is brand new and pretty user friendly. The 550 EX is a bit older and I'm thinking of selling it. Not quite sure if I want to keep it and use it as extra fill light.

Editing- I edit mostly in Lightroom 2. It's very user friendly and I'm not well versed at photoshop just yet. LR2 has everything that I really need in a photo editing software at the moment. Every once in a while I try Photoshop. A lot of my classes require putting my photos in contact sheets, which is most easily done in LR2, so I just kind of stay there to edit.

I hope I covered everything. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask!