103/365 Feature

"Yes, It's Natural"

It's that time of the month again.  No, no THAT time, although I hate it almost as much.  Today was the day for April's self-portrait.  This month we were supposed to focus on a specific feature of ourselves.  I asked Weber what I should do.  His first suggestion was one for which the photos would have been inappropriate for a public blog.  The alternative was my hair.

When you have hair the color of mine it becomes a feature whether you like it or not.  It took me nearly fifty years to get to the point where I was OK with it.  If for no other reason, I'm pretty sure it gets us undeserved senior discounts at restaurants every now and then.  

Those of you who have known me for awhile know that I have always had short hair.  I have decided to give it a try a little longer.  That is another reason that it was appropriate as a defining feature this month.  To further illustrate that it is getting long, I didn't try to control it as the wind blew it around while trying to take this picture.

On a much happier note than self portraits, I got a new macro lens today.   I had fun shooting flowers this morning.  Little tiny colorful flowers that are actually weeds looked beautiful.  When I came in and looked at the photos on the computer, I noticed a weird line through about half of the photos.  I have had this problem a few times before but only when I was pointing the camera up at an angle. Fortunately,  I knew the issue wasn't with the new lens.  I think it may be the sensor. 

I have chosen the last two new lenses that I have gotten with the thought that some day I might get a new camera.  These lenses work on the camera that I have as well as the one to which I would likely upgrade.

With today's camera weirdness, I started thinking about what I would do if something like this happened while we were traveling this summer.  What if I couldn't take any photos while we were gone?  This was terrifying to think about!  Actually, just thinking about taking my camera and leaving it to be cleaned and have its sensor checked kind of freaked me out.  I couldn't be without my camera!  What would become of my picture of the day?

As often is the case, Weber had a simple solution: get the new camera now.  But, but, but, I just got a new lens, a lens that was not cheap.  And the new camera, if I upgrade, definitely won't be cheap.  Again he said, "Just get the new camera."  We stopped in the camera shop to ask about the problem that I am having with my camera and to ask how much it will cost to have it cleaned.  We told the guy we'd bring it in sometime this week.  And, I got a new camera.

I had to charge its battery so I haven't done much with it yet, But I did use it for today's picture.  I also took this picture of Erin.  I was not really trying to take a good picture of her; I just wanted to get the settings for my self portrait.  She is just so darn photogenic that she takes beautiful photos even when we're not trying for that.