October 02nd, 2019

Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh, Oh My Gosh!  Do you know what this is?  Yes, of course, Yes, It's a camera. But more importantly It's MY Camera!  Squeeeee!

As you may (or may not) recall, 99% of the photos that I post here are pictures that I have taken with my trusty cellphone camera.   Some of those pictures aren't too bad.  In fact, a couple of them have gotten awards.  Mercy!   But still, a cell phone camera is a little limiting.  There are things that it just cannot do.

I did not ask for a real camera.  I did not even secretly wish for a real camera.   Though I confess I have admired not only other people's real cameras but, more importantly, the resulting photographs. Still,  I was perfectly content to just take cell phone pictures for the rest of my life.   Partly because, well, the cost (you know how cheap I am) and partly because it's not like a better camera is an investment that will bring me any sort of return (other than the pleasure  - which, now that I think about it, does have some sort of value).  It's not like I'm getting paid for my photos,  y'know?

Tim has offered, many times, to buy me a real camera. I always said no thank you.  My sister has suggested that I buy a real camera on multiple occasions and I always just laughed it off.  Several friends and a few fellow photographers have questioned my reluctance as well but nope, I was immovable on the subject.  I was perfectly happy with the camera on my little cell phone.  At least I thought I was.

Until this past weekend.  I don't really know why my opinion on this matter suddenly changed.  Well maybe part of it was the approach.  We were already out and about, doing this'n'that.  Tim is driving and we were deep in a discussion about.......something.....I don't even remember what it was now.  We frequently solve all of the problems of the universe while travel here and there. Suddenly Tim turned into a shopping plaza.  I didn't really question it.  Clearly, he must have had a reason.  We got out of the car, still continuing our conversation and walked into a store and suddenly we stopped talking.   

I followed Tim silently.  He stopped, looked at the display, picked up a camera and put it in my hands.  "How does this feel?"  he asked.  "It's a little heavy" I answered.  He picked up another one, "This one?"  "Oh that's better" I said.  And we played with it a little bit.  Then we looked at a third one and a fourth.   I was having fun "playing" with cameras.

Now I must interject here that it's the sort of thing that Tim and I do.  Not necessarily look at cameras, but look at all sorts of things.  It is not at all unusual for us to look at model homes, or cars or boats with delight and make our imaginary choices.  We cruise through Home Improvement Stores and garden centers on a fairly regular basis choosing our favourite things.  We give it real consideration too.  We discuss the positives and negatives of each item and we have such fun doing it.  If we ever win the lottery, we are good to go. We know exactly what we like :)

I assumed that we were doing the same thing. Playing "Let's Pretend". Why not?  Costs nothing.  When we left the store,  our conversation was about the cameras.  And it ended with Tim asking me if there was one that I preferred.  I told him which one was my favourite and he suggested that I read about it when we got back home.  Which I did.  And afterward I told him that my opinion had not changed. That I still liked that one particular camera.

He said, "Then that is the one that you need".  I blinked.  I asked him a thousand times (at least) if he was absolutely certain that this was a good idea.  He assured me, a thousand times (at least) that it was a very good idea.  And then, and I still can't believe I did this, I said, "Then thank you, yes. I would like to have that camera!"  And that's all that I said.  No argument, no further discussion, just 'thank you'.  That's kind of crazy!  And totally out of character for me.

The camera arrived late on Monday.  I opened the boxes, took everything out  and rather reverently, spread it out all over the kitchen table and began to read the instruction book.  I read it several times (it's not very big) and slowly slowly slowly began putting it all together.  I played with it a little bit, mumbling to myself a lot as I went.  I asked Tim a ton of questions and referred back to the instruction book frequently.  I ended the day plugging the battery in to charge because I was By God taking pictures the next day. Come rain or shine, photos were happening!

Tuesday, when we went out for the noonwalk, I brought my new camera with me.   Here is the very first photo I took:

Holy Cats!!!!!!

I cannot, I may not ever, get over the difference between this newest dragon fly photo (just above) taken with my new camera and

this roughly a month old dragonfly photo which was taken with my new cellphone camera.  And, I laugh now, I was wowed by the photo above at the time because it was so much better than my old cellphone camera.  Now it looks more like a cave drawing by comparison.

I'm just totally wowed by the difference.

So that's it.  That's the story.  Christmas came early for me this year and I must have been an especially good girl. Or I have Santa completely bamboozled.

I'll leave that to you to decide which is more likely.

Whatever the case. I. Am. So Excited!!!!!!!