I'm a professional photography instructor and have been running my photography training business for 3 years now. I can tell you straight away that 90% of the things people spew out (knowledge and products) are complete BS and not needed.
I think someone above mentioned the 10,000 shots to master photography thing which is probably the biggest lie out there.
The truth is that DSLR photography is a very rare hobby because most of the job is done my a machine. It's more of a mental hobby and can actually be improved upon just by reading and gaining more knowledge. It really doesn't involve much practice. That's the reason it's a timeless hobby/skill.
What is more important than hands-on experience with a camera is developing an eye for composition. And the best way to do that is to surround yourself with the best shots in the world. Facebook is a great tool for this. Like as many pages and join as many groups related to photography and STUDY every good shot.
Unless you develop an eye for well composed shots, nothing much is gonna happen. You can buy a Nikon D810 with a 70-200 f2.8 and still end up clicking shots that look like cell phone images if you are not good with composition. I see this all the time and yet people worry more about things like megapixels, sharpness and optics of lens, etc. Yes, all that is important but not as important as your own natural lens.
As far as buying the Nikon D3300 goes, don't even think about it, unless you want to own a camera that is most likely to be dumped by Nikon very soon, just like most of their other low-end cameras. In fact, due to Nikon's poor marketing capabilities and the fact that they declared a notice of extra-ordinary loss just recently, I foresee a major change in their operations very soon.
Having said that, I use both Nikon and Canon extensively (own 4 Nikon and 2 Canon cams) and Nikon wins hands-down. Their functions make shooting very easy as compared to Canon's cameras. The full frame cameras for both the brands are equally good though. Don't get fooled by reports of Canon taking over the DSLR market because that is majorly down to how well they market their products. You only need to see the Instagram pages for Canon and Nikon USA to see the difference. But functionality wise, Nikon is way better and more intelligent.
I would recommend you to go for Nikon D5500. In my opinion, it's the best medium-end camera available in the market and if you have extra dough, then go for Nikon D750 which is the best in the full frame high end cameras.
Also when you are starting out, never ever buy a lens before renting and using it first. In fact I would suggest renting lenses for a good one year or so, so you can figure out which types of photography you'll be doing on a frequent basis and which on a rare basis. For instance, I rarely do landscape photography so when it comes to using a wide angle lens, I usually rent it out as it doesn't make sense buying something that I'm not going to use much. On the other hand, I almost wildlife photography on a daily basis so even though a super telephoto lens costs me a bomb, I was happy buying it but that was also after renting it first and seeing whether everything worked fine.
Also when buying/renting lenses, learn about the principle of background compression and how it is affected by focal length. This one principle will take your photography to another level and make you understand how to choose lenses wisely. It's a huge topic so I can't really explain you here.
The next tip I would give you is to NEVER EVER ignore learning Photoshop and Lightroom editing and post-processing principles. In today's world, if you are a photographer who hates editing and relies on SOOC (straight out of the camera) images, you'll be left behind so fast that you'll start hating photography.
And the last tip I would give you is to not rely too much on the free stuff out there masking as courses. Always invest in a paid photography course because this is one hobby where there are so many variables, it's very easy to get confused unless you are following something structured. One of the best resources for learning (though a bit expensive) is CreativeLive (not affiliated in any way).
Hope these tips helped you. Cheers.
