My New Camera. My New View On Life.

Nikon: Luv At First Shot, First Snap, First Zoom... You get the picture...!


You know how a digital camera if used pretty heavily (like mine is) kind of poops out at about the 2 year mark? Well my Kodak Point and Shoot is well over 4 years old. But how well loved is this camera?! How I have pushed it to it's limit! How it's battery runs out so quickly!
A Kodak Z7590:

5megapixels (more than enough for a point and shoot)
Plenty of custom modes: like flower, fireworks, nighttime portrait to name a few of my favorites
Fabulous Optical Zoom (although the digital "extra" zoom was useless)
Easy control of flash: off, fill-flash, red-eye, auto
Video Camera: great for catching those hard to catch moments

Bottom line, I'll be keeping my Kodak: it's big enough to do the job and small enough to fit in my purse and not worry too much about it. (Plus the hubster says he might try figuring it out a bit more.. so there!)

The Nikon Love Story Unfolds....

I've been researching Digital SLR cameras for a long time now. (2 years!) The ability to press the shutter and have it TAKE the picture right then! I don't think I can say enough about how much I've been ready for that! Yes I want more megapixels.. who doesn't! But even more, I'm ready for a camera that I can control the zoom and focus point. I'm all about using the macro (little flower icon) mode lately, and choosing to focus on a blade of grass or my niece's face is where it's at!

My Dad got a Nikon D60 for Christmas, and when he was in town I played and played with it. I'm no expert and figuring out how to set all the manual settings proved to be too much for me.. I don't have the patience to set the F-stop and the shutter speed and all that?? I still need some serious help there... plus it has no video camera, and you can't use the LCD screen to take pictures, and there were only a couple built in camera modes, but it did have the macro mode? And oh my joy it takes the most beautiful pictures!

Every time I saw a friend with either a Canon or a Nikon I'd beg them to let me shoot with it. And I'm afraid I was suffering from the sin of 'I REALLY REALLY REALLY WANT THAT'.

Over Mother's Day we marched into a Costco while on vacation in Phoenix. We had every intent to buy the Nikon D60. But... we decided 1) the box was huge and we had to fly home with it and 2) there is no sales tax in Oregon saving us over $50 buying at our own Costco.

Only.. the next time we got to Costco, THEY didn't have it?? What?? I'm THIS close and they DON'T have it!? I looked online. Nope. No Nikon Luv for me. And worse? It was decided that my daughter needed her first installment in the orthodontic breakthebank/we-have-no-ortho insurance/palate expander. The exact same cost as the camera. Que the sad music. It's a very nice metal piece in her mouth, but not really satifying to take pictures with, maybe as a radio antenna?

Fast forward a few months. We are at the family reunion. My dad has a Nikon. My sister has a Nikon, even my BIL has NIKON! I picked up my sister's camera and after talking to her realized she knows absolutely nothing about the thing!? HUH? She's so not worthy of it's majesty. I took some shots with it, and then some more, and... then I filled her whole memory card! Babies, cousins, grandma's flowers, 4wheelin', river raftin' (no not ON the river with it! give me some credit!). And I was getting pretty good with it. The main thing I couldn't figure out was how to turn the fill flash on so it will fire regardless of light?

Anyway... this longer than we've ever been on a family vacation, was about 2/3rds over. And the mom and the dad left the kids with the grandparents (oh how grateful we were to them!) to fly off to Seattle and celebrate their 15th anniversary, (yes we're THAT happy together!). How cute is this? We spent our honeymoon in Seattle, so this was like our reunion tour... except.. this time we could afford to stay in a nicer hotel, one that didn't have a pocket door for a bathroom, didn't have bugs and didn't smell. Why am I telling you all this?

Because there was a package waiting for us at the hotel upon check-in?? Huh? You're kidding me, the hubby had his office ship out some of his documents and such so he could work on them while on our Second Honeymoon?! Well, no. Turns out, he made ME open the box. And in it.. was a wrapped gift. With an anniversary card on it. And.. it was wrapped a second time. With a Mother's day card on it. And... it was wrapped a THIRD time! With a birthday card on it...

You already know don't you?

THIS was inside.


A Nikon!
A Nikon D5000.
Huh? Haven't I been blubbering over the D60?

The D5000 has a live view screen!
The D5000 has a video camera!
The D5000 has 12(freakin')MEGApixels!
The D5000 has EXTRA shooting modes!
The D5000 has...

a really large price tag...!

Ahhhhh, now I get it. This gift.. ?
Is my birthday/mother's day/anniversary present for the next 15 years!

I say. It's a deal! Worth my new view on life! Thanks to my husband of 15 years. For all the fun, worth taking pictures. For all the crazy, DEFINITELY worth taking pictures. For all the Luv, and all that's still to come.

Here's to 15 more!

(Vancouver Stanley Park.. is this amazing.. taken from a trolley bus!)

Oh my heck! I was featured. And it didn't hurt or anything!



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