A two-hour mile

After a stupid, stupid afternoon at school (GOD.), I was glad to get home and de-stress.

I grabbed my camera and library books and headed outside. I took a slow, wide loop around my neighborhood to run errands. The sun was out, it was very warm, but not humid; perfect in the shade. Brandi Carlile played on my iPod, and I took pictures of plants, fences, walls and birds. After the post office and drugstore, I dawdled in the library and got stuck behind the slowest four people of all time. My last stop was getting my eyebrows done (that damn rogue white hair reared its ugly head this week). After my two-hour stroll, I felt relaxed and happy to be productive.

It was a truly lovely afternoon.

I had convinced myself a few months ago that I really did not need or deserve a DSLR. My Sony took really nice photos and had an excellent zoom. And I only bought it last May, for a lot of money. It had manual settings and I was practicing using them, finally.

So I felt extra 'bad' that my boyfriend bought me the Nikon. Would it really make a difference? Would I use the things that make a DSLR different than my big point and shoot?

Well, on my walk today, I turned my camera to manual mode AND manual focus. And the things this camera can do are indeed much better and more sophisticated than my Sony. I mean, duh, but my point is that I'm actually *using* those features. I still have to learn and practice with the settings, but they all go much higher/lower than the other one. So I'm trying to feel better about having such an extravagant toy! :)