New Toy

This week Josh came back from his Dad's house with a present for me. It was a lovely brown case, containing an even lovelier gift. Ann brought back her dad's old camera from NY for me. It's a Canon AE-1Program, a 35mm SLR from the early to mid 80's. There was also an extra lens and a flash in the case. And several film canisters, which I'm nervous to open. I don't know if they've been exposed yet, and I don't want to ruin them if they have. I'll have to take them by Barron's and have them checked out. There was another roll still in it's box, so I might pop it in the camera and just see what happens when I start pushing buttons. :)

My Christmas Wish List No. 1

With such a short amount of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year people are already asking for gift ideas from me. So, I've been working on my wish list lately. I've separated it into 4 categories- Want, Need, Wear, and Read. I got the idea from dandee via stephmodo. At the top of my Want list is a fun little camera.

To Market, To Market....

...to buy a new camera. So, I got a small bonus at work this week. I get little bonuses here and there when the other office employee, a.k.a. my mom, is out sick. When she's out sick it's usually a week or so. Which can get a little stressful, as I'm sure you can imagine. I've been needing a better camera for awhile now. Pretty much ever since I started my food blog really. I don't mean to diss my camera, especially since it was a gift, but it's just not going to help create works of art. Anyway, I decided the best way for me to save up to get a new camera would be for me to set aside my little bonuses. I now have $400, which I think will either net me a pretty nice new camera, or will put me a lot closer to one. But which one? To be honest, I'm pretty inept when it comes to technology. And I know that I am not a terribly good photographer. In fact I would call myself skill-less in that department. So, I definitely need a camera that has some ease to it. My biggest worries are that I will get something that won't work for what I need, or that I will spend a lot of money on something with a bunch of functions I won't use. Mostly I want it for taking pictures of food, but I also want to be able to use it to capture our daily life just as nicely. And then it would be great if it would work well in dark places, so I could finally take some good pictures at Chemistry Set shows. I've tried reading a bit online today, but so much information comes up when you search for help, it's almost overwhelming just on it's own. I think I've figured out that I need something with:

-a decent macro setting
-adjustable white balance
-manual focus
-high ISO
-at least 4MP

The trouble is, I don't even know if my current camera does any of that. Well, I'm pretty darn sure it doesn't cause I've pushed a lot of wrong buttons and none of that information has ever come to light. So, I'm not really sure how to make sure I find all that in a camera. Do I need a really good point-and-shoot, or do I need to lay down serious money for a DSLR? If you happen to read this and can offer me any advice, please do! Do you have a camera you love? Have you used a terrible camera I should avoid at all costs? Do you know so much about cameras that you can tell me exactly the one for me? If anyone falls in that last category it would seriously rock.

Piggy Bank

Things that I need to be saving my money for:

1. Anniversary trip to San Francisco

















2. New iPod












3. New digital camera












4. New dining room furniture