This weekend we almost (not really) felt like we were back in Minnesota. Snow fell from the sky and covered all of Covington really nicely. So nicely, in fact, that church was cancelled! This turned out to be a good thing for me because I had to teach today and I wasn't prepared. (I tried, I really did, but I was too distracted with my new camera (see below) and with all the other things going on around here.) With nothing to do all day, we had a snowball fight and photo session outdoors until we got too cold. (HA! TOO cold? We've become a bunch of weenies since we left Minnesota. Have you noticed that I use a lot of parentheses? Its weird.)
So, I've been complaining for months about the sad state of our digital camera. It didn't use to bother me so much, but it seems to have aged over the last few months and the photo quality is ... well there is no quality. Of course, Ashley's gorgeous photos of our kids last month only increased my discontent. After seeing them, every picture I take is just disgusting to me. She's ruined me! Maybe someday I'll be rich enough to buy my own SLR and lenses and photoshop and photography classes and ...well, maybe not.
Anyway, yesterday Emma woke me up and said that Santa had brought presents. It turns out that Chance did have one for me. A new Nikon P80! I almost cried in joy. But I was too happy to cry - I just kept smiling! And then I just wanted everyone to leave me alone so I could read the manual. I spent the next hour and half doing that and managed to snap about 186+ pictures before the battery ran out. (This happened to occur at the exact moment Emma walked onto stage for her ballet recital yesterday! Sigh. Thankfully, a friend took video of it and I'll post it later after I get it. I know, parentheses again.)And now to compare the old with the new. Below is a pretty scary picture taken with my old camera. This kind of quality was fairly common. I ask you?! How am I supposed to live with that? It looks like something taken with a mobile phone. (Of course, the picture is also pretty scary because Tyler is pretty freaky in that shot.) I don't know what happened to the camera. Maybe it was dropped too many times or something. All I know is I am so grateful to be able to grab a shot like the one of Noah in "time out" on the porch. Hallelujah!
"Buying a Nikon doesn't make you a photographer. It makes you a Nikon owner."
~Author Unknown
~Author Unknown
7 comments:
Awesome camera!!! Your kids are too adorable to not have an awesome camera capturing them, though. I love the snow pictures! We didn't get as much snow (2" maybe at the most) and it wasn't very good for playing in but we got some pictures too. I hope you can have a snow day tomorrow again :)
Yay! New camera! Always fun!
And you're not the only one who likes to use parenthesis a lot. You know it's bad when you use parenthesis within your parenthesis.
Great pictures, great camera, great photographer! Glad you enjoyed the snow too. We were iced in yesterday and missed churchn too, but found out we were the only ones I guess who live in a an icy, hilly, area.
How exciting! You will love having an SLR once you get the hang of it (it took me a while). It is not as portable but the quality is worth it, I think. Very exciting!
And thanks for your kind words about the photos we took. You are sweet.
So cute!! The kids look like they are having so much fun! I am VERY jealous of the new camera! I too have been complaining for quite a while now about our little digital and Eric and I both want a Nikon. I am going to have to live vicariously through your pictures until I can get one of my own. :) I just bought new barstools and Eric informed me that if we hadn't made that purchase then he was planning on getting a new camera. Bummer!
I can only imagine what things must be like around your house about now. I once heard someone say that you'll never find a more motivated person than a man with a brand new chain saw, but someone with a brand new camera comes in a close second. Your family probably won't have a private moment for months now.
Here's something for the very talented writer in you to think about, though. When I moved to Canterbury I took my camera with me. I was a very experienced photographer and the City abounded with visual delights. No photograph I ever took, though, seemed to quite do its scene justice. In frustration I put down my camera and I picked up my pen, and only then did my record of that world come alive. A picture, I found, was truly worth a thousand words. Take pictures of the small things. For the big things, write the thousand words.
T, what a beautiful and poetic comment. I wish I had more time for writing. I need to be more organized and find the time in my life for more things for myself.
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