Two years ago, Ori Raynai was sitting in a college classroom scrolling through Instagram. Raynai noticed a picture taken from the top of a building his friend works at, so he decided to check it out himself.

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“One day after an exam I went on the roof and started taking pictures with my Blackberry phone,” Raynai says.

            After that, Raynai started going out with other photographers and “it all spiraled from there,” he says.

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Now, Raynai has more than 49 thousand followers on his Instagram page - @ori.ginals.

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            A spark of interest can come from anywhere, and the best part about photography is that anyone can take a picture. Raynai went from taking a picture on his phone to using his dad’s old camera to buying his own DSLR.

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            Christian Padilla, 17, and Thomas Negasi, 21, are both newcomers to the photography scene. Padilla started shooting pictures eight months ago and for Negasi it’s been about two months. Photography has always been a passion of theirs, but they never took it up until recently. Instead of being a spectator of Toronto’s photography scene, they wanted to be a player.

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Here are the steps they took to get started:

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1. Start simple.

There’s no need to buy expensive equipment right away. “I started off with a second-hand (camera) on Kijiji because I didn’t want to buy one at full price and then not be into it (photography),” Padilla says. Negasi also decided to hold off on getting his own DSLR. “I used the family camera at first, started taking pictures and people liked what I was shooting and they were buying pictures off me,” Negasi says. Raynai agrees and says, “It doesn’t really matter what type of equipment you have or how expensive it is.” It’s important to get comfortable with taking pictures and learning how cameras work before you empty your pockets and buy a fancy DSLR.

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    2.  Connect with people.

Sometimes, you just need a little help from your friends. Taking pictures with friends is a good way to develop your own style and learn. “I would go out and take portraits of my friends, to get used to taking pictures of people,” Negasi says. Padilla’s friends helped him in another way. “My friends told me to shoot in aperture priority mode and then after a while I got comfortable with that so I switched to manual mode,” he says. Raynai says it’s important to meet new people in the city and make connections because it can lead to things down the road. “I ended up getting some paid jobs with companies,” Raynai says.

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    3.  Trial and error.

The more pictures you take, the better you get. “The hardest thing about getting started in photography is actually finding the time to go out and take pictures,” Negasi says. YouTube is also another way to learn about your camera. “I went on YouTube and watched a few photography tutorials to learn more about my camera and the features that come with it,” Padilla says. Raynai says YouTube can only teach you so much – going out and trying something yourself will help create your own style. “The three basics are: shutter speeds, ISO and aperture,” Raynai says. “Just experimenting with those settings will help you find a way that you’ll like to shoot.”​