First Shots off New Camera

CrackedAndBroken, originally uploaded by carolsLittleWorld.

This is one of the first shots off the new camera.

I always *hate* taking out a new camera for the first time. There’s just something about that first photo shoot where I never feel really comfortable, I can never get into the zone. I realize this is probably unusual, most people absolutely love getting a new toy, running out, and playing with it, but me? Nope, not so much. I kind of always feel like I’m holding somebody else’s camera, at least for a few days. Once I start to get shots off the roll, once I start to get the feel of the camera, then it starts to feel like mine, and I start to either love it and sort of bond with it or realize I’ve made a big, expensive mistake and go camera shopping again. I relegate it to the bottom of the camera bag and try to get over it as best I can, justifying it as a “well, it just didn’t feel right” kind of a camera.

There really is just no better explanation for it than that. It’s just a “feel” thing. I would image race car drivers feel the same way about their cars, and yachtsmen feel the same about their boats. The instrument has a certain feel in your hands, there’s a kind of spirit to the machine and you either meld with it or maybe you just don’t. Maybe it was supposed to go to somebody else and somehow, through an odd lot in life, you got stuck with it.

I can’t explain this very well, or put words to it really, but I can say that the 7D, this particular one, feels quite nice in my hands. Though it’s heavy, in fact, I thought it too heavy for my taste at first, it’s growing on me. Somebody, somewhere, in an on-line review called this camera an “anvil” and that name really fits. In fact, I might have to name my new 7D “Little Misses Anvil” because that’s how I think of it now.

Bottom line? I’m not totally pleased with the shots from the cemetery shoot this weekend but it was a nice day and I started to get the feel of the new camera. I suspect next photo shoot will be better and I would certain hope so, as next photo shoot will probably be in Hawaii.

In other news, I’ve gotten setup with the laptop and the mifi wireless devices. It’s really great to be on the Internet with such comfortable devices-the laptop is glorious and the Internet connection is small and fast enough for me to check email and the like while traveling. I highly recommend a Macbook air to anybody thinking about getting a new laptop and I love the Mifi devices. It’s like having your own “personal hotspot” your very own Internet cafe, right in your pocket.

How cool is that?

Until next time…