Tools!!

After convincing myself that Photoshop Elements was a "need" :) (not really)-- I found it $20 cheaper than I expected at Costco and it came with 100 free prints which I will use. Then.....I found some leftover money on a Costco gift card. So I am now the proud and confused owner of Photoshop Elements! My last post was evidence of my ownership. I was so excited to try those circle swirls on my orange flower picture from Napa but all I had time to do was slap it up there without explanation. Thankfully, there are a ton of tutorials on Youtube and on photoshop.com that will help me learn to navigate the program.

But wait! There's more!!! My husband ordered some things for me for my birthday that I had put in our Amazon shopping cart/wish list. Today I got a remote control for the camera, the Nikon D5000 field guide, and a UV filter for my lens.  The remote will be helpful in portraits when it is helpful to engage with subjects without a camera attached to your face and also in slow shutter speed situations where even depressing the shutter release button with the camera on a tripod causes camera shake.  The UV filter is basically helpful to protect the lens. The book- is going to be a great help in understanding my camera well and helping me to get really, really comfortable with my equipment so that I can then focus on photographic technique.

Wait some more. Because there is STILL more!!! Miracle of all miracles, my dad texts me on Saturday asking me what I want for my birthday. He says, "Don't say 'Nothing'." Ha!! I said, "Well, you caught me at the right time because I REALLY want a bunch of camera stuff!!" He asks me to pick him up so that we can go shopping at the Camera Center downtown. I was so excited. Wouldn't you know, we get downtown for this very rare occasion-- and it is closed for XFEST- a huge outdoor concert. I was so bummed! Well, anyway, to make a long story shortish-- my dad gave me the money to get a new lens. I have wanted this lens for a couple of years. It will allow me to drop down to an Fstop of 1.8.  I think I can only go to F3.8 or 4 on my current lens. This means that I can get those great portraits that have sharp focus of the face and nice blur of the background. It is also a great lens (due to its speed) for indoor events and low light situations-- think birthday party, candles lit on the cake, nice focused picture without the flash popping on and washing everything out! I am so excited to play with my new lens and all this stuff. I have a huge heap of new stuff to learn. Additionally, it is THE nicest gift my dad has ever given me and it is special to get a gift from him that I really couldn't have justified buying myself but that I think is going to open up a lot of possibilities for me.

One last funny thing- I was reminded that beauty really is in the eye of the beholder! I was showing my dad some of the pictures I have taken. He thought the pictures of Kate were, "cute." He was uninterested in the grapes. I showed him the shot of the almonds opening and he said," Well, I've seen that 100 times before!" And then I showed him one of my all time favorites-- the chain.  He said, "Dawn! Of all the things you could take a picture of, why in the world would you take a picture of an old chain?!"  Hahahaha!! I got the biggest laugh out of that and it has given me pause in my thoughts about all this photography stuff. This stuff really ISN'T as striking to everyone as it is to me!  It doesn't change how I feel about it, but it  is funny to me to imagine that some people might have viewed these pictures with similar thoughts to my dad's.  Like, ' It's just corn! Or, yup, that's a flower!' :)