Like it or not, being single with a decent, stable job has it’s advantages. Those of you who visit here often, know that I usually start my blog posts this way when I’ve made a purchase of some sort. This year, there are 3 bigger purchases that have intended to make. The first one is my car. My folks were generous enough to allow me enough time to obtain my 2010 bonus at work before paying them for the car. That’s my first big one and it will consume most of my bonus checks. Very much justified since this new car will easily last me another 8-10 years and that means another 8-10 years without car payments (fingers crossed). Awesome. My second purchase this year is going to be a keyboard. Some time ago, I decided that after having spent all but the last 10 years of my life pursuing music in one way or another, I had really better do myself a favor and not forget any of it. One way to ensure that I won’t soon forget how to sight-read, how to compose, or how to sing is to purchase an instrument that will help me do maintenance. I have decided this year to allow myself a $300-$1000 budget to purchase the necessary equipment to keep myself musically in shape for the foreseeable future. Again, a long term investment that is well worth the money. Many of you all knew about those planned purchases.
Finally, after spending the last 2 years developing my amateur photography skills and capturing over 20 Gigabytes of photos (that’s over 5000 pictures) in just those 2 years alone, and after countless people informing me that I’m wasting my time selling paint and that I should be selling my photography, I decided to upgrade my camera to the real deal. Tonight I purchased my first DSLR camera via a package deal from Best Buy (the only place left in town that stocks anything). For those of you who considered my previous photography to be pretty good, the photos you will see coming out of this new thing will blow your mind. That’s just my impression based on a few pictures I’ve taken tonight with it. The difference in quality, resolution, contrast, and just about everything else is very noticeable. This camera uses actual mechanical optics rather than digital technology to reproduce the image which gives it a huge advantage over any digital camera out there. This camera, along with the additional zoom lens I purchased with it will allow me to capture in much more detail the things I enjoy taking pictures of, mainly the lake, the woods and Gavin the Wonder Dog! For you family out there, it is very similar to Andy’s camera that he had with him this past summer.
For those of you who want to know, I purchased the Canon EOS Rebel T1i that came with the EFS18-55mm standard lens and I also purchased the EFS55-250mm zoom lens. Of course I got the extra battery and a new SD card as well. Big features on this camera include an integrated flash with the option for the external flash, auto-focus, image stabilization, Canon’s newest image processor, a 3″ LCD screen as well as a TON of features to set up pictures manually or automatically. It also allows for the addition of an entire family of lens’s as I develop my skills. While it’s not considered a “PRO” camera, it is an intermediate level camera and it’s likely to far exceed my own ability to use it which means I can easily grow into it and expand it’s features as I learn more how to use them. So, tomorrow or Sunday, assuming I get a little good weather up here, I’ll be heading out to take some pictures with my new camera and I’ll post them to leelanauaphotography.com for you all to see. As an added bonus for me, I’ll be selling my old camera which will recoup some of the cost for this new one, anyone interested should send me an email.
So, there you have it, 3 big purchases and guess what…this year, (Mom and Dad because I know you want to know) I’ll even be able to save a considerable amount of money and put it in the bank where it belongs right? I’ll be putting the first payment for the car in the mail to Iowa very soon (we’ll talk first).
