Serious digital photographers can’t rest with just buying a good camera/lens. One of the key aspects of DP over traditional photography is control. In DP, the photographer has almost total control over his end result. This does not mean that traditional photography doesn’t offer control. Think of it this way - how many amateur film photographers set up their own darkroom? In DP, 95% of the time, the darkroom is Adobe Photoshop. What you once instructed the developing & printing lab to do, you can now do at home.

The downside of this is the amount of investment one needs to make - beyond the camera and lens. For a person as naive as me, I have struggled with:

1. Memory - which brand, how fast, how much….all these questions I have investigated
2. Deciding on a decent bag to carry all the stuff. Should match my cost v/s performance ratio
3. Building a decent computer. - best possible graphics card, RAM and all
4. Calibrating my monitor (!) - yes, this has been a nightmare. Especially after my monitor came back from repair. If i am deadly serious (and rich), I may even have to invest in a monitor calibration equipment.
5. Choosing a good software for that ultimate workflow. Will it be RawShooter? CaptureONE Pro? Or any one of the many other options available. And again, struggling a bit more to see if the colour profiles match.

So here I am. Feeling wise after getting my hands messy with monitor calibration, computer freeze due to memory/CPU overload etc. But I am not complaining. It’s fun!