My New Camera

A couple of months ago my cousin asked me to photograph her wedding for her. I of course accepted, but made one stipulation. on my 101 list, I have "photograph someone and get paid for it", so I wanted a little reimbursement.

In addition, my Nikon D40 is getting a little rough. While in Costa Rica last year, the flash burnt out. Now this wasn't entirely bad since I got a better external flash to replace it, but every now and then you just want a normal flash. To get this fixed on my specific camera it'd be over 100 dollars - this just wasn't happening. Plus, as i got more and more involved in my camera, I was being confined with what I could do with it. Basically the Nikon D40 is for beginners and was compatible with only SO MANY lenses. So, I've been (not so) secretly hoping for a reason to get a new camera for quite some time.

All of this combined to where I told my cousin that I would photograph her wedding if she put money towards a new camera - allowing me to better shoot her wedding, get a new camera and cross another thing off my 101 list.

A couple of weeks ago I got the check and that day I ordered my new camera (Nikon D80). Since then I've been researching a little and figuring out some of the mechanics of the camera. With my old one I usually left it on auto and let the camera do all the work. This time around, I plan to utilize a lot more of the manual functions. I'm finding out what exactly they all do and am really starting to get a good idea of how to use them.

Once I get a little more money I hope to invest in a few of the fun lenses that I couldn't quite use before.

I haven't taken any significant photos with it yet, mostly just some little shots to test different settings, but I'll be sure to post as I do!