Bring on Leap Day!

[lillbet]

1.) Got a super-nice response from my landlady- she emailed that I was a "pleasure" to have as a tenant and she wishes me luck. And that she thinks the walk-thru and damage inspection shouldn't be a problem. Yay. I was braced for crankiness because that's what I usually get so it was nice to get a warm fuzzy. More of that I say. :)

2.) So the next thing on my list is to get my camera. Getting a Nikon D5100, just have to decide on glass ('lenses' to everyone not Kev or Beth or Hema or me). (Henh.)

3.) Talked to my sister tonight and told her what was up. She was super-supportive. We hung out in Baltimore with two friends of hers, had beers at this great lil' pub and then dinner at a Poe-themed place called the Annabel Lee (I got the COOLEST pint glass- one more thing to drag to Cali. *lol*). James told me that for beer I'm going to MECCA, and Anne gave me a recipe for Hot Milk cake from a Maryland-themed cookbook. Making it tomorrow, probably! I still have a lot to learn about the state I've called home for so many years, but that's what happens. Right before you leave a place, things just open up and get interesting. *lol* Definitely going back before I leave.

4.) Saw this on Pinterest. Off to write fanfic. Or rather "sleep". Yes. That.

Comments

[susanbones]

I'm glad that your sister was super supportive.Maybe you can friends some day.

[lillbet]

Here's hoping. She said she knew I wasn't happy and that she was glad things were moving in a good direction- I think she likes me more when I am trying to live rather than when I just sit and stew. Hell, I see her point.

[taperoo2k]

I'm a Canon fanboy, but you can ask me about technical stuff to do with exposures and stuff if you need to. All I will say on the glass front is get a 50mm prime lens. It's a good way to learn how to compose shots as you can't zoom in or out without moving around (instead of using the zoom ring). It makes you think more about how to compose a shot. Both Canon and Nikon do fairly cheap 50mm f/1.8 lenses. My Canon one might be made out of plastic but it's image quality is awesome and good value for money (got mine for under £80 a few years ago but lens prices have shot up due to the strength of the Japanese currency) and the Tsunami.

Also I cannot recommend this book highly enough - Understanding Exposure, 3rd Edition: How to Shoot Great Photographs with Any Camera by Bryan Peterson (easy to find on amazon). It's my camera bible, I always use it when I get stuck with something.

This site is jam packed with tutorials (lots of good stuff for Photoshop, Lightroom and a few GIMP ones) - http://www.digital-photography-school.com/

I tend to shot in my camera's RAW format (nikon has it's own), as that gives me much more scope to edit photographs as Jpeg files are compressed and tend to lose image quality when you edit them (RAW files on the other hand do not, as they contain all the data the camera's sensor captured). It just means bigger file sizes and a lot of editing work. But that's made easier with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 (4 is coming out soon, I have the beta version it runs out on the 31st of March).

[lillbet]

Ooh, thanks! Do I need a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8? THE QUESTIONS!

Definitely getting one that's autofocus capable to start. This is something I plan to grow into.