Stay Tuned

I am going to start a new blog - a PHOTO BLOG - because I just got myself a new (well, new to ME) Nikon d50 digital SLR!

May I present (under construction) Chicago Shutterbug.

Blogger wouldn't let me create a separate account and I don't want to create an email address only for this blog. So I removed my personal information from that blog. Those who know about THIS blog can get there through my profile, but those who only know about that blog won't be able to connect the two easily. So just an FYI, I'd prefer not to mention The Sarchasm on that blog, since I plan on sharing that one with people who don't necessarily know this one exists.

I need to figure out all the dodads and whatnots, but it feels great to have a real camera in my hands again.

I was into photography for about 10-12 years from just before high school to beyond college. I had an old Minolta and a few lenses. I loved taking pictures and took that thing everywhere with me. It finally died and, at the time, it was pointless to replace it with a film camera and the good digital SLRs (with interchangable lenses) were financially, far out of reach.

Well a friend from work bought this camera like-new, used a couple years ago and has since upgraded to a fancier, professional-grade Nikon. She's meticulous and keeps the packaging and boxes for everything and takes great care of her stuff. So she sold me this camera - the body, kit lens (15-55mm), a telephoto (55-200mm), charger, manuals, box, etc - for $300. That's less than the body of this camera costs by itself, new. I went and got a media card, a small case, and a strap the other day and am good to go. Another friend from work who is a photographer and teaches photojournalism in the communications department at my school is going to sit down with me and go over the bells & whistles of the camera with me. I might take a photo class at a community center in the near future to just get back into the swing of maniuplating depth of field and composition.

I carried it on the el to work this morning and purposely sat in the very back of the last car so I could take pictures out the rear window. I'm taking this thing with me everywhere I can.