I have a new toy! Like I had been talking about for a week…this morning I went out and actually bought myself a DSLR. Specifically A Nikon D3000:

Nikon D3000

Had to take that picture with my point and shoot. But there it is! 70% of my tax refund! Before I get into the camera,  I need to plug the place I bought it from because they’re totally awesome.

The place: Danella Photographic in New Hartford. They’re a specialty camera store, locally run. I went in there and talked to the guy at the counter, explaining what I was trying to do and what I needed the camera for. I mentioned that I was looking at the D3000 and he brought one out for me to play with. He spent the next 45 minutes to an hour showing me how to use the camera and gave me a basic lesson in the more advanced Photography, including some very helpful tips and tricks for how to get some good results. He said once I take some shots and get comfortable with the camera that I can bring some in and he’d take a look at them and give me some advice, as well as go over some of the more advanced functions. He remembered Wassy from when she was in there a couple weeks ago too.

The camera cost me $100 more than it would have if I went over to Best Buy and picked one up. But nobody at Best Buy is going to be spending an hour walking me through it.

When I got home, it turned out that I was REALLY lucky with the lighting outdoors. I went out to see what I could do and get some practice in around the apartment complex. We have this nice little section of woods behind our building with a creek running through and everything. Wassy went down there last weekend in the morning and picked up some amazing shots, so I headed down there this afternoon to see what I could find. I managed to snap a couple of decent shots, I think (out of the 75 or so pictures I took down there). It was hard to see what I was taking on the LCD screen since it was so sunny out, but I was trying to experiment with the various settings.

As it turns out, the second picture down here is almost exactly the same as one of the ones Wassy took. I managed to find the exact same bit of plant and snap a picture in the exact same way. The only difference was in the lighting the fact that hers was frost covered. Freaky. Here’s some of what I got:

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Really excited to have a new hobby to pursue. Especially one that’s in more of the creative space. And I’m REALLY happy with the camera. I was hoping they would have something used, but Wassy nabbed the one used one they had in the price range I was looking for, so I went with the D3000 (the slightly upgraded version of the D60).

Looking forward to seeing where this all takes me, and I’m very thankful to Wassy for getting me to consider these sorts of activities as something I might actually be able to do (after I convinced myself that I couldn’t) last June. I’m happy that I’m learning and doing something productive with my free time. Like I said earlier in the week, it just feels satisfying.

I need to take some shots for my Digital Imaging project tomorrow, so I’ll get another chance to play around and try out various things.

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