Father's Day

Last weekend I drove up to Boston for Father’s day. For Mother’s day, K (my brother) and I helped my parents sort through and clean out the attic. I persuaded Mom that it made more sense to move the garage sale stuff down to the garage on Father’s day, closer to when the garage sale would be held, so that the basement would remain at least partially navigable. So K and I spent most of Saturday setting up the garage for the garage sale and cleaning out the attic and basement and I gave myself a blister vacuuming out K’s car (and my own).

My Dad has a moderately well-sized collection of slides taken during his various travels – including his trip around the world before he married my Mom (I should say just before – he proposed and went on this months-long trip leaving Mom wondering if they really were getting married. Before you think this is callous, I’ll point out that mom went on a two-week trip to Greece before their wedding without him so she was hardly pining). He’s been looking into ways to make these slides digital and is hoping to find something satisfactory that he can do at home somewhat cheaper than sending them all out. So we did some experiments with my taking pictures with my new camera of the slides projected on a wall:

This was taken when many Japanese women still wore kimono – looking at this picture temporarily gives me a very different perception of time.

While not perfect, I think it does a reasonably good job and can be done relatively quickly for free. He’s going to think about it.



Sunday we met K and his girlfriend KH at Mary Cheung’s, our favorite place for Dim Sum. Naturally I brought my new camera, and KH has recently resolved to take a picture a day so there was a lot of snapping of pictures.

Curiously enough, A, the boy I went to the Prom with, whose parents still live down the street from mine, was at the next table with K’s best friend from High school. It’s a small world, where you grew up.

New Toy

So I received my new toy at the end of last week. Two years ago, I bought my first digital camera. At the time, I spent a little more than I thought I probably should have, and I didn’t think it warranted a big investment for the following reasons:

1) I liked shooting with my SLR (Nikon FG 20)
2) I didn’t really take a lot of photos

But I did decide to buy a digital camera because I knew that a part of the reason I didn’t take very many photos was the trouble and expense of having the film developed and printed (something I have never done myself), and because I haven’t found a place that I trust near me to develop the pictures well. Also, I was keen on trying a new toy and the ability to see immediately how the pictures turned out. So I bought a Kodak P850 as it seemed to be the best camera for my needs short of a DSLR, which I knew I didn’t really need.

Fast forward a year. I loved the Kodak P850. I took more pictures than I have in years and rediscovered how much fun photography can be. Essentially, I primed the pump with the little camera and got frustrated with the lens limitations astoundingly quickly.

Don’t get me wrong – for all the purposes that I thought I needed in a camera when I bought it, it did beautifully. It just left me hungry for more.

So for about a year, I stewed on the idea of buying another camera – a DSLR – and flirted with review sites, photography magazines, and camera stores. Always circling ever closer to taking the plunge.

Finally I did – and then was frustrated almost beyond bearing when one of the lenses I had ordered was on backorder – and they wouldn’t ship the order incomplete. (Note: when the lens did come in 3 weeks later, they DID send the orders separately … ARRRRGGGGHGGHHGHGHGGHGGHH!)

And here it is:

Without at doubt, it is too much camera for my skills and know-how.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!

This must be what some people (mostly guys) feel when they buy a sports car.

I went overboard for two reasons:
1) The past two times I’ve made a big purchase, I’ve been sensible … only to revisit the issue within a couple of years and buy again. Figured I’d skip the middle step this time
2) I really wanted it.

Wheeeee!!!!

I took it with me to the Collingswood Farmer's Market on Saturday.