The camera

Find the camera that fits your needs and budget. What kind of photographs do you want to take? What are you going to do with the photographs? There are many brands and levels of cameras and some have different features. Do you want a DSLR or a mirrorless and what are the benefits of each that appeal to you? Everyone has their own bias and will say that their camera is the best because of this or that and that brand is trash because or this reason. Some may be giving their best and most honest experience or opinion or may have a hidden agenda or never had much experience with said brand. I recommend you take what is said and do some heavy research, see what other known photographers use and have to say as well as trusted reviewers or tech or cameras.

What peripherals do you need?

How will you transport your camera? Will you just use the strap or will you have a backpack type carrier or a shoulder carrier? I would also look into what lenses fit your camera and what the benefits of them are, what makes them different and how they will affect how your camera takes pictures. Tripods come in very handy and help stabilize your image. There are filters, flare shields and a whole mess of other items that can help your camera take better, cleaner pictures and help protect your camera and lenses. 

Learn your camera

Before you run out to take the latest and greatest photographs read the manual on your camera. I myself want to just run out and play with my shiny new camera and go wild, but, if I need to change ISO, aperture or shutter speed in a blink, can I do it?  See what the different buttons do, where all the buttons are and get familiar with them. When you are out taking photos, sometimes you will need to hit those buttons by memory to change a setting to get the lighting right, the blur or lack of right etc. 

Taking photographs

I would recommend taking your new camera and taking a fair amount of generic photographs so you can get the feel for your camera and see how it operates. Play with the different automatic settings you can see what they do and how they affect your pictures. When you get more comfortable with them play around with the manual settings to see what they do and how they change your photos. 

After you get comfortable with how your camera operates and have a more of a feel for it, I would watch some videos on YouTube or SkillShare (this link will get you 1 free month of Premium). I have used SkillShare to brush up on techniques that I use infrequently. On these you can learn even more about what different settings do and how they change what your pictures will look like. 

In conclusion

Have fun with your new camera. Don't be afraid to take bad pictures as sometimes a photograph can turn out better than you thought. I take my camera with me anywhere I think there might be something I find interesting and want to capture. I have my camera save the files as RAW so I can edit them later with ease using Adobe Lightroom. I really enjoy getting out there and observing nature and watching the world around me. 

I hope this helps those out there get started on a good path to having fun with taking photographs.

If you want to see some of my work visit me on 500px here