My New Playtoy

Thanks to N. I have a new playtoy. A Nikon D40X! She was sweet enough to buy it for my 40th birthday! What a nice present! I ALWAYS carry a camera with me at all times, and while this one is a bit big to carry like that, it will most certainly be at my side for special occasions!

It is a sweet starter digital SLR that came with the first lens - AF-S DX Zoom-Nikkor 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6G ED II - for those of you who might care. It has a built-in flash AND a boot for a flash attachment. I have a bit of experience with 35mm, even taking a class or two, including developing and printing. I cut my teeth on the first Kodak instant camera given to be for my 10th birthday (this was the one that Polaroid sued over ... seems Kodak stole the technology which Polaroid had patented... hmm... Microsoft/Apple comes to mind). Since that instant camera I've had many others. My first digital actually saved its 2 megapixel pic to floppy discs, and I've gone through about six other digital point and shoots in the course of the years. My Dad really helped me along with the photography bug. He had a powerful Mamiya/Sekor 1000 DTL with four lenses which he would let me borrow in my teenage years, and later he even gave me an old Argus 35mm that he bought when he was stationed in Germany in the Cold War. It is compact with a static lens but fantastic German optics. It was the first of its kind to have a light meter built right in!! I still have that thing... of course it still takes great pictures... they're film and much harder to manipulate in Photoshop!

But using all of these different cameras taught me the nuts and bolts of the thing... unfortunately I have no talent for "finding" those arty pictures, it simply isn't in me. I see pictures from talented people all of the time which just make my mouth water... but I simply can't make that happen. So I take pictures of people and places and they at least record a time and place and that is pretty much OK to me.

Speaking of pictures. I just realized that no one has been subjected to pictures of my cat recently... Here are a few of Frank taken with the new Nikon.