Picture Perfect

I am so excited. I finally got my birthday present from Abe- a dSLR camera. Yippee!

We had a Canon Power Shot that did the job, but suddenly decided to have weird purple streaks throughout. It also took anything that was bright white and turned it pink. Not sure if it was the sensor or the memory card, but it was the final straw for me to want a new camera. I'm also taking a few photography classes and thought a better camera was in order.

After a bit of research, I decided in on a Nikon D-60. I thought I had plenty of time before my new class started to get it. Perfect timing.... new class in digital photography, new fancy camera. Ever the cheapskate, I was told by several people that could get at a good price on Ebay. Well, what I forget about Ebay that the bidding process can drag on. And often times when you bid, you lose. And then you have to start the process over again. Only to lose the bid again. So, needless to say, Melissa was the only 1 on day one of her class without a camera. Thank god that it was a review of the last class I had taken.

Funny thing was that I thought I had gotten the Nikon for a super cheap price. I had gotten the camera body for a little over $300. This was a saving of $350 from what I was quoted at Ritz Camera. Now mind you, that was without the lens that they were lumping in at the store. I figured I'd get those "fancy" lens (translation: lenses that I have no idea how they work or what the dimensions mean) later. I was so proud of my purchase that I showed it to Abe, bragging about how smart his wife was to get such a great deal. Abe peered at the picture for a minute and then commented about how there wasn't a lens. Um, yeah silly, of course there's a lens (duh!). All cameras come with a lens built in. The other lens were extra. Until I looked a little closer and noticed that the hole I had assumed was a lens, was just that. A hole. For where the lens that I apparently had to purchase-separately-so that's-why-the-camera-was-so-cheap-you-dinghole, goes. Oops. So off I went to get a good deal on a lens.

So, on Day 2, Melissa was the only person who had a camera without a lens in her photography class. Thank god I had remembered to at least charge the battery, so I could follow along when we looked for things in the menu of our cameras.

I'm LOVING my new camera. I am so intimated by all of the features and will have to do a lot of reading of the manual, but so far I can see a dramatic difference with the quality of pictures. The class I'm taking is getting heavy duty with F-stops, aperture measurements, shutter speeds, etc. , but if I pay attention, I will be able to take some better shots. We have field trips with picture assignments, followed by classroom critiques the next week. Scary, but exciting!

Here is a few quick snapshots I took today with my new baby. Adam was sleeping, so I couldn't get his cuteness as a model. Abe, Jimi and Roxy were happy subjects. Poor little Adam will be sick of Mama pointing that weird black thing in his face before long.