My New Camera Strap

 

It's here! 

 

 

My new camera strap. 

 

I had it made by Swanky Camera Couture, after reading about Megan's.

 

Know the neat part? It's reversible!

 Now look at my blog background. Now look at the camera strap. Don't you think they match almost perfectly?

The attachment straps are also very nice because they have these "fast release" buttons in case I need to wash my strap. The fabric is super soft too.

And, she added a lens cap holder for free.

So far I think it's adorable and can't wait to show it off. 

Wonder if I could wear it to the grocery store and snap some produce shots?

10 Feet Off Of Beale

I recently entered a photo contest, and although I didn't win, it gave me an excuse to work with some of the nighttime settings on  my camera. 

I'm really happy to share some of the results. 

This shot was taken at almost dark. Amazing how much light my camera can pick up. 

These were taken from our balcony. We've had several great sunsets lately.

The Mountains, The Woods, The Sticks, The Middle of Nowhere

No matter what you call it, we were there.

We were in the land without AT&T. 

But man, was it pretty!

I don't think I had ever been someplace that had such a mixture of dessert and mountains. 

And some parts were almost barren, but others were lush and green.

Can you see the little bee on the left side of the yellow flower?

I loved how the mountains showed all the shadows and light between the sun and the clouds.

But the best part of being in the mountains turned out to be the sunsets.

The aliens may very well be coming down in this one.

Chris got these last two, and I love them! I think they are the perfect balance of light and scenery.

Being without cell phones and the Internet is sure better when you have beautiful things to enjoy.

Bath Time

Some times, you reach behind your ear and realize you need a bath. 

So you lick. 

And you lick. 

And you stretch to get those hard-to-reach spots. 

And when you're finally clean, right down to your toes

It's time to take a nap. 

Don't Flash The Camera

I've been working with my camera this week without the flash to learn how to use more natural light. And what better test subject than a sleeping kitten?

I like this last one the best, but Chris says the first is his favorite. What do you think?

After Five Long Years...

After five years of marriage, I deserve a treat. I deserve a treat that I had been talking about for a while, but it was quite a splurge. I deserve a brand new, fancy camera!!

Christopher and my five-year anniversary is actually June 11th. However, two weeks ago we were traveling to my folks' farm for a long weekend, and Chris really wanted me to have the camera to play with there. (See the results here!). Chris had been secretly stashing away money for my present, and Wednesday before we left on the plane, he told me to set aside two hours of the day. He told me we had to run an errand, and when we got in the car, he said we were going to get my anniversary present. 

Usually, I'm very traditional about presents. I like presents on the day of the event; I don't like any hints; I LIKED to be surprised. But when we pulled up to Wolf Camera, I knew I'd be okay with getting my present early. 

I was really happy with the guy we worked with, and he listened to what I wanted. I know there is plenty of discussion between Cannons and Nikons, so we'll leave that alone. I decided on the NikonD5000 because it had high-definition video (really wanted this feature because my little point-and-shoot has video, and I use it all the time), vibration-reduction interchangeable lenses, lots of automatic scene-specific settings, and the swivel screen is nice if you're taking photos of very low items and very high items--the latter is especially good for short folks like me. 

So far, I am really loving it. I'm pretty much sticking to the different automatic modes on it, but along with our purchase, we got several free camera classes. I'll definitely be taking part in those.

 

The 55mm lens came with it, and we also got the 200mm lens.

Here are a few more of my favorite shots so far.  

Thanks, Chris!