A Very Special Photo Friday

I have a new love. No, I'm not cheating on my husband. In fact, I think he is as much in love as I am. What is our new love? It's this beautiful thing:

 

Isn't he handsome? Are cameras male or female? Hmmmm, that's something to think on. Maybe we'll even name him/her. Nick? Ike? I can't think of any appropriate female names, so he must be male. Specifically, the object of my affection is a Nikon D5000, which Marty completely surprised me with for Valentine's Day. Isn't he a good husband?! 

We've been talking about getting a fancy camera for a while, especially after seeing of the photos some of my friends and family have made with DSLR (digital single lens reflex) cameras. Yes, I know it takes a good eye to take great pictures, but it also takes a good camera. I take so many photos of Oliver, but I can only do so much with my little point and shoot. Combine that with my love for art and fine art photography, architecture, and the landscape, I knew it would make a fun hobby. Anyway, it was one of those dreams where I figured "someday," that vague moment in the distant future, we'd get a nice camera. I didn't think it would be so soon! Marty knew I needed some kind of creative output, I'd been talking about taking a class of some sort, so he knew this would be perfect. He was right. Have I mentioned that he's a good husband?

It's not just a gift for me though. It is definitely a family gift. I think Marty's just as into it. Of course, researching which camera to get was half the fun for him. He emailed people we know who are photographers, made spreadsheets, researched online, all that stuff. And he's been messing around with the camera more than I have. Since he has that engineer brain, he's already better at figuring it out than I am!! I took a photo class in high school, where I learned all the technical stuff (in the pre-digital days), but that was a long long time ago, and I need brushing up on my f-stops and my shutter speeds! For Marty, it's like the piano, he can just sit down and play, never had a lesson. One glance at the info that came with the camera, and he's already shooting in manual mode. I still have a lot to learn. The digital cameras are so much more complex than the old manual one I had where you just turned a few dials and pushed the button. 

So here they are, the first pics we took with our new camera! Remember: we're just beginners!

"Pouting Oliver", by Marty. Could that bottom lip get any bigger?

 

"Not ready for my close-up", by Marty. Oliver was getting tired of being a model.

  

"Full on Tantrum," by Marty. Who knows what this one was about.

  

"The wife," by Marty. Warning: I am not wearing make-up, view at your own risk.

  

"The wonderful husband," by Kelly. 

 

"Oliver loves yogurt," by Kelly

  

"I'm still learning to feed myself goopy things," by Kelly

  

"None of this other food is as fun as yogurt," by Kelly

  

"Wanna see?", by Kelly

  

"Being messy is fun!", by Kelly

I wish you could see these bigger, but this is as big as blogger will let me post. I may work on changing the layout if I can to put larger photos on. Still, you can click on a photo and it will open larger for you. I compressed them for the blog, but they are still pretty big.

So, if you thought I took a lot of photos before, get ready for even more! (Can you tell by the number of exclamation points in this post that I am really excited with our new toy?)