Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged hobby
New Toys, New Hobbies
Feb 6th
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:
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.
Inveitability
Feb 5th
So yeah, I’ve pretty much decided I’m going to pull the trigger on the DSLR purchase. The most likely suspect is a Nikon D3000 (See right), but I’m going to run over to the local specialist store this weekend to ask around, see what they might recommend. That’s where Wassy got hers and they really know what they’re doing over there it sounds like.
I’m still a bit… apprehensive, I guess would be the correct term about dropping that much money on something. But I wasn’t planning on having the money available to me anyway, and I’m tired of coming up with excuses for why I can’t pursue something that I might enjoy.
Ever since I got my little point and shoot I’ve taken an interest in photography. Even managed to get some pretty decent shots (like the one to the right). But after seeing how much of a different a DSLR makes even if you’re just a beginner…well, I’m interested and I think I could become pretty decent at it if I keep going.
It’d be a great complement to my newfound interest in graphic design and a big help in my current classes.
So I think I’m gonna go for it now that I have the resources available to me to drop the cash. I’ve just been feeling really…satisfied with how I’ve been spending my free time. More than I have been in a while, and I want to keep exploring down this road. See where it leads. I think it’s a very worthwhile investment.
I’ll post an update on how things went later.
Economic Stimulation
May 7th
The IRS has decided that it would send me my stimulus payment yesterday. So I went about stimulating the economy like a good little citizen.
As I've mentioned in the past (although it was a while ago), I've always wanted to learn how to play some kind of an instrument. I used to know how to play trumpet from my elementary school days, but I dunno if that really counts. I decided that I needed a new hobby, something that was more constructive than hanging around and playing video games. So I decided to buy myself a keyboard (well, a MIDI controller actually) so that I could learn more about music and how to play stuff.
It's always something I've been interested in doing, but I never got the motivation to go out and do it. But now I'm going to try to change that. So I ordered myself up a Korg K61P after doing some research. Now I just have to figure out how I want to go about the learning process. I don't think I want to take a class or lessons right off the bat anyway. I'm not terribly interested in making this a formal thing that starts feeling like work. I may do something down the line, but right now I just want to kinda mess around with stuff. Probably not the best way to go, but I'm not one for one on one lessons in most cases anyway. We'll have to see.
Time For Music Maybe?
Jan 31st
I've got what looks to be a backlog of stuff to talk about that I should have mentioned earlier in the week, but as you might be able to tell, I didn't. So the next couple posts are going to be me catching up.
Earlier in the week I came to the conclusion that I wanted to try a new hobby because the stuff that I traditionally enjoyed doing with my free time wasn't really interesting me anymore, aside from video games and wandering around, wasting time on the internet. I kinda felt that I was wasting my free time (moreso on the countless hours spent just visiting internet forums and not as much on the video games) and that I could spend that time doing something a little more productive.
I keep telling myself that I'd like to learn how to play some kind of instrument and I think I should stop thinking about it and actually do something about it. So I've been toying with the idea of picking up a decent, but still affordably priced entry level MIDI Controller/keyboard thingy for myself that I can hook up to my MacBook and mess around with. I think it might be fun to learn. I had toyed with the idea of a guitar as well, but I dunno. I think I'll give the electronic stuff a shot and if that doesn't keep me interested, try guitar out.
I just feel like I haven't learned anything new in quite some time and I'm too boring as it is since I don't really have any hobbies aside from video games. Don't get me wrong, games are fun, but they don't offer the feeling of personal fulfillment that I'm looking for.
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