The Beauty of Everyday Objects

While it seems we are always looking ahead to future home projects, and my head always hs a couple of decorating ideas percolating in the background, sometimes it takes a long, long time for these ideas to come to fruition. Finally, with a free afternoon today, I took some time to take photos in the hopes of picking some to display in our dining area. While my theme for these photos has changed somewhat over the years since the idea first sprouted, I think I have my final four picked out from this afternoon's shoot. Plus, I already have the frames and mats, which have been sitting in a closet for about a year. It looks like I may have even found a high quality photo shop to reproduce my first ever digital prints. And here they are:


I like to play with macro, can you tell? And I love my Nikon DSLR!

Click Happy

Some may have noticed the return of photos to Rutabagastories, which can only mean - drum roll, please - I have a new camera! The good news is, I think I've found a keeper (although Costco does have a 90 day return policy, so I'm not locked in yet). The not so good news... it didn't come cheap. After playing around with a few point and shoot models, I came to realize that what I really wanted, what I've in fact wanted since I bought my original digital camera about six and a half years ago, was an SLR.

The fact is, I love setting up a shot the old fashioned way, looking through a viewfinder. And I love the option of a true manual focus. But on a typical point and shoot model the viewfinder is woefully inaccurate, and the manual focus, if it exists, is a joke. A DSLR, I figured, would give me the control I craved, and allow me room to grow as a photographer. The only downside, really, is that a DSLR is much larger than a point and shoot, making it too unwieldly for certain situations. We may just buy an ultra compact, inexpensive point and shoot to have on hand for such occasions.

I haven't had much of a chance to play with my Nikon D5000 (the model I chose after extensive online research) yet, but managed to bring it along while walking Lucy this afternoon. Initially Lucy wasn't too keen on stopping for what was, to her mind, no reason whatsoever, but overall she was extremely patient with her dog mommy's strange behaviour. While the lighting wasn't always great and our neighborhood isn't the most thrilling place for photography, I did get a few nice shots. Here's a sampling:

The Case of the Missing Camera

It's unclear when it happened, but my camera has been suspiciously missing for several weeks. The facts: It was with me when I wrote a blog post on March 22nd. I know this to be true because I downloaded the photos appearing on the blog that day. About a week later, it was nowhere to be found.

My only thought is that I took it with me to happy hour at Tidbit on March 23rd, the day following the aforementioned blog post. But scatterbrained as I may be at times, I have a hard time believing I would bring it with me into a restaurant, not use it, and then completely forget that I had ever brought it with me, even when faced with the camera's mysterious disappearance. I'm not that scatterbrained... I think.

Now, part of me sees this as the perfect opportunity to purchase a new camera, as mine is well over six years old and has become rather crotchety in what, for a digital camera, is now old age. But I am so confused over what camera to get - some sound great, but the indoor picture quality is apparently sub-par (and I already have that problem), I want more than a 5x optical zoom, and I don't want to spend a lot of money because, well, now just isn't the time.

So, any suggestions? I want to be able to sneak in quick photos while traveling in Europe, so I can keep on blogging and, after all, a picture is worth a thousand words. So from any who prefer the illustrated Rutabaga Stories, all thoughts are welcome.