Things That Made Me Happy This Week - Aug 22 2009

• More stuff checked off of Mr To Do
• Finishing the redesign on Bob’s new website
• Presenting a new idea at work and having it approved. Excited for a new project!
• Learning about Bach’s Rescue Remedy from Trish. For a great post on Bach's, click here
• Giant, side-splitting, tear producing laugh with Bob
• Finding out about Wendie's quote in The Atlantic. Congratulations, Wendie! And Happy Birthday!
• New camera!!

A few words about the new camera….

You may ask… Melissa, how is a new camera “less complicated”? Was your old one broken? No, the old one wasn't broken. In fact, we will continue to use it. There are several reasons for this purchase:

Bob and I both blog a lot. We take pride in the pictures we post and we want them to be the best they can be.

We’ve both become very interested in photography in the last couple of years and were ready to take the next step in our education. In order to learn about things like aperture, composition, ISO… we need a camera where we can actually adjust those things. A point and shoot won’t allow for that.

Photography makes you do things you may not normally do… go places you may not normally go… at times you may not normally go. Wendie says that the best light is sunrise and sunset. I wouldn’t normally go to a beach at sunrise, but if I know I might get a great shot… I’m much more willing.

Digital photography is a fairly inexpensive hobby. Once you’ve purchased the equipment, the only expense is gas money to get you to your location. Of course, the possibilities are endless in terms of lenses, filters, software etc. But those items can be purchased used or refurbished for less money.

Sharing a hobby is a great way for a couple to bond.

We’re going on vacation to a beautiful place in less than a month… we want to take beautiful photographs to remember our honeymoon!

So, after putting a lot of thought and research into it, we got ourselves the Canon EOS Rebel XS. So far, we’re loving it! I find it a bit intimidating but I'm excited to learn all about it.

Here is an unedited picture taken with the Kodak Easy Share point and shoot on the close up setting:

And here the same unedited picture taken with the Canon Rebel XS on the close up setting