big, deep sigh
The conference is over, I am working in a summer hybrid tech camp for faculty, and things are slowing down, bit by bit. So I turn my thoughts to something else — traveling and taking pictures, which are two of my favorite things.
Recently, with some leftover grant money, I was able to buy a Nikon D40 SLR with two lenses. In many ways, this is my dream camera. Four or five years ago, I found that I love to take pictures when I saved up birthday and Christmas money and bought a higher-end consumer camera — not an SLR but a nice enough camera where I was able to get some good pics (which are on my flickr whose password I have forgotten and need to resuscitate). My father gave me his 1977 Nikon SLR — a real camera, with two lenses, this past year and I have loved using it.
But digital photography has just gone past film in so many ways — it’s cheaper and easier, I can edit the photos and post and send them online all over the world. Tools like the Nikon digital let me play without assuming a high knowledge of shutter speeds and aperature and, when I want to, I can go completely manual and play with those settings.
By the weekend I should have some time to get out and shoot some film, and in a couple of weeks I go home to the West and can shoot my head off, in a manner of speaking. I am SO looking forward to it.
As a special treat, in thinking about travel, here’s a neat little site I found on Unclutterer — One Bag: The Art and Science of Traveling Light.