New Camera

So for my 40th birthday (sigh) I bought myself a new toy.

I've been looking at cameras again. Back in High School and College, I really enjoyed photography. I was a photographer for the HS newspaper, with full access to the B&W darkroom! After that, I worked in a couple of photo labs in Montana and California.

One of the reasons I gave up the hobby was the cost of processing, and the lack of quality. Back when I was in the darkroom, I developed my own stuff, and printed the pictures the way I wanted to. When I worked in the photo labs, I had less control, but I did have my employee discount, and I was able to control several elements of how my prints were processed.

When I started my "real" job, I was able to buy a nice camera, and a few lenses. I was able to make some nice images, but overall, I wasn't having as much fun. My prints would come back too dark or too light. I would also realize that my composition was wrong. I needed more practice! I needed to shoot more and more rolls of film. It started out to be an expensive, not-so-much-fun hobby. So I put photography on hold for a while, and had fun doing other things.

Since that time, digital photography started coming out. The early cameras where about 1 Mega Pixels. Jill had one of those (Merry Christmas dear) and she loved it. I would look at the prints she made (from her ink jet printer) and "poo-poo" them. "Look at the pixels by the eyes" I would say. "This technology stinks! It will never catch on!"

More years passed. 1 Mega Pixel cameras turned into 4 Mega Pixel cameras. Ink Jet prints were no longer being done, and the local photo labs were printing digital prints onto real photo paper. Things were looking better. I no longer "poo-pooed" this new technology, and started seeing the real benefit. Take as many pictures as you want, review them on the pretty screen that is on the camera, and download the ones you like onto your computer. Point and shoot cameras could now make decent looking photographs, which could be printed large and hung on a wall.

Last year, when Jill got her latest digital point and shoot camera, I got a little jealous. We bought the camera for our UK trip. I took her old hand me down camera, and took a couple of hundred photos during the trip. I had a great time, and made some great pictures too!

So I was content to use the super small point and shoot camera. It fit in my pocket, and took nice pictures. However, a few things were happening that would really piss me off. First of all, I would take out of focus pictures. Why the camera wouldn't focus at infinity during a sunrise landscape shot is beyond me. I also wanted to control the size of the aperture, to control the Depth of Field. While technically possible, I needed to memorize a large book, and navigate 10 levels of menus before I could adjust it. I was frustrated that I could not quickly create the images that I knew I could.

I'm not sure exactly what happened, or when it happened. A good friend of mine got a nice Digital SLR camera (DSLR), a Nikon D80 last year. This camera is not your simple digital point and shoot. It is larger than most film cameras were 10 years ago. You can buy lenses to place on this camera, which are just like a "real" camera. Then, about 2 months ago, my neighbor got the same camera. I started to feel the itch again to get back into photography.

But the camera is not cheap (but I am) and it was hard to justify to myself that I should spend a ton of money for something that I essentially already have.

Then I turned 40....

I figured I had to do something when I turned 40. I needed to go an buy a sports car or start hanging out in strip clubs.... something life changing. So I threw caution to the wind, as well as a few dollars, and bought myself a nice Nikon D80 DSLR camera, with a beautiful 70-300 telephoto lens.

I've been out several times taking pictures, and I'm having a blast. I want to post a few pictures a week of what I've been doing. So check back if you want to see whats going on.

Here are a few from my first trip out.


I'm finding that I really enjoy nature photography. I can go for a walk in a local park, and it is full of birds, bunnies, and deer. Our backyard is full of squirrels and bunnies. I figure I can practice on them, and by the time I make it out to someplace like Yellowstone, I'll understand my camera enough to take some great shots.

That's it for now. More pictures later.

posted by RICHARD

Why?

This has happened to me several times, and I'd like to know why...

I go to the gym in the morning. I'm usually done with my workout around 8:30. When I goto my car, I usually see several other cars "circling" the lot. When I happen to have a day when I get a parking spot close to the front door, and I walk towards it, there is a feeding frenzy with the nearby cars. They seem to race each other to get into position to take my spot.

My quesion is this. Why are you going to the gym to begin with? Most people go running on the treadmill. Would walking an extra 30 yards to the front door be such a bad thing? I can understand that during a rain storm, or when it is cold out, that the extra 30 seconds walking is a big deal, but this happens to me on nice days too.

One day, I had to make a phone call in my car after my workout, and when I made it to my car (I had ROCKSTAR parking that day) I had somebody waiting for me already. I wanted to just sit and make my call, but I felt obliged to drive over to the empty area before I made my call.

posted by RICHARD