Sticks and Stars

I’ve been doing this photo-a-day project for 82 days now and I must say, I’m really enjoying it. I know four other people who are doing it (because I inspired them!) and two of them are doing it for the photos (as in, seeing what cool photos they can take each day), while the other two are doing it more for the documentation (as in, documenting a year and trying for cool photos along the way). I’m definitely doing the latter as well, and so far it’s been a great exercise in training myself to pay attention to composition and lighting and color and whatnot.

I have a tiny little no-feature camera, which I thought would be perfect for this project (and is, indeed, what pushed me over the edge to start), but I’m starting to see how more features could be useful and much appreciated. I’ve always wanted a fancy DSLR but deep down I knew it was only because DSLRs are “cool,” certainly much cooler than dinky little point-and-shoots, and if I can buy something that will enhance my coolness well then who am I to not whip out my wallet?!

But seriously, even if I’ve always liked taking photos, I certainly have had no need/justification for more than a minimally featured point-and-shoot. But now that I’m starting to really get into taking photos and really working to make them come out nicely, I’m thinking that maybe something fancier is finally warranted.

I definitely can’t afford to shell out $500 or $600 (minimum!) at the present moment, but maybe after completing this one year project that would be a (pretty damned spectacular) reward. And by then I’ll have a better sense of whether it would be a worthwhile investment.

If you want to see my photo-a-day site and you know my first and last name, it’s firstname-lastname.com (and then you’ll see the link). Otherwise you can just email me or leave a comment and I’ll send it to you.

I’m feeling really great today. It could be that I had a beer with coworkers after work and am merely riding my mild buzz, but I prefer to think that it’s a combination of expressing my concerns about my job to my favorite coworker and seeing her do her best to support my work the rest of today (which will make a huge amount of difference), coming up with a reasonably plausible idea for making my job a hundred times more stressful but a million times better, completing my first three start-a-web-development business goals, and getting to a part in my current school coursework that’s so interesting I can’t wait to stop typing and get back to my reading.

Plus, it’s a three day weekend after just one more day!