Only a minute

This spring is beautiful. The fact that the cabin is under roof makes any weather beautiful. But it has been really nice. We're having sunny days in the 70's and that makes it even better. I'm overwhelmed with work and most of the time I'm okay with that. I just look at the thing I'm doing at the moment and keep my mind focused on that. When I finish it, I look at what needs doing next. I always have an overall picture in my head of all the things I need to do, but I focus on what I'm doing right now. The only time I get stressed about it is when something bad happens, such as a client calling and getting upset because their wedding video isn't done. That really upsets me and then everything looks more overwhelming and I want to quit or run away. On rainy days it seems worse. On nice days - like today - it seems better.

Sometimes I have days like yesterday. We got a lot done on the cabin this weekend and last evening I had to drive up to Gaithersburg to meet with a prospective client - my first Bar Mitzvah and my first photography gig. I was very nervous. They hadn't hired me yet, but wanted to meet with me and they wanted me to bring a camera and take pictures of the son to use as a sign-in picture at the reception. I didn't want to show up with my little Canon Rebel if I didn't have to, so when I was at Best Buy Saturday evening, I looked at their cameras. They had a Canon 30D, but not the 20D. I was told by colleagues to buy a 20D. I had gone online looking for one. Lots of places had them, but they were places like "Bargains.com" or "Cheap.com" and I wanted to buy it from a place I'm familiar with, like B&H. B&H doesn't sell them. What to do? Well, Best Buy had several cameras, including my Rebel, a couple of Nikons, a Sony, and the Canon 30D. The guy working there opened up the case (he admitted he knows practically nothing about cameras - great) and I got to handle the cameras. The Nikon and the Canon 30D felt awesome. Heavy, substantial. I decided the 3oD must be even better than the 20D. I mean, afterall, the number 30D seems higher than 20D - right? Plus I had found out the 20D costs about $950 and here was this 30D at $1,499. It must be a better camera. So I bought it. I bought a zoom lens, too. I was so excited. I didn't get to sleep until 2 am that night because I was so excited about really committing to photography by making that purchase.

The next day while we were working on the cabin, I started wondering about my purchase. I ran inside and got online and started looking. I found several forums where people talked about the 20D, the 30D, and the Nikon. They liked the Canon better than the Nikon - didn't expect that. I couldn't find anything comparing the 20D and 30D though. But I did find out that the smaller the number of the camera, the better the resolution. That upset me. I found an old article saying that the 20D has 8.2 megapixels and that the 30D only had like 5. Well, my 30D has 8.2, so I must have the newest model. That's all I could find comparing the two. The 5D has over 10 megapixels and costs almost $3,000. So it looks like the smaller the number of the model, the better the camera. It looks like there's a 1D, which is really awesome, but I didn't see any specs or prices on that. SO! I don't know if I made a great purchase or not. I do know that all my Canon cameas can share lenses. So if I have to buy just the body of a 20D or a 5D later, I can do that and keep different lenses on each one so that when I'm shooting pictures at a gig, I don't have to take the lens off and put on a different one. I'd just use the different cameras for the different shots. But still. I bought a 30D. I hope I didn't do a stupid thing.

I took that camera with me last night to Gaithersburg. Like I said, I was nervous. On the way, since it was suppertime, I ate pork rinds, puffn cheese popcorn, a candy bar, beef jerky, and a Pepsi. Sheesh. That's nervous. I got there 15 minutes early and didn't realize it. I caught them off guard. The mother was napping. They were very gracious and kind though. We all sat down in the family room. The son seemed very aloof and didn't talk much. I told them I'd like to just talk first - get to know them and the son. I asked the son what he's interested in - hobbies and studies at school. I asked him about friends. He loosened up a tiny bit, but not a lot. He is not only smart, but he's incredibly gifted. I decided I could trust him with my brand new camera. I handed it to him and showed him how to do a couple of things. He loved it. Soon he was smiling and he took pictures of his sister and parents. He tried different settings and decided he likes photography. His parents were happy to see that I was able to make the children comfortable. I took pictures of the boy doing some karate forms. He was uncomfortable with that - wanted to be photographed in a suit and tie. I told him that if he'd let me get him doing some karate, then we'd do the suit and tie next. He had so much fun doing the karate for the camera that we didn't have to do the suit and tie after all. Then for fun, I took pictures of the younger sister doing hula hoop. That sounds like nothing, but it was something indeed. She can keep up to 11 hula hoops going. She has a routine with them and she has a poodle skirt she wears. I got her to wear the poodle skirt and do the whole routine. We had so much fun. The parents were thrilled with the pictures and I got the contract. Now all I have to do is figure out what to do with the pictures. I know just who I can ask. I know I need to send them somewhere online and make them available for the family and they'll chose which to use at the Bar Mitzvah. It needs to be printed poster size. How exciting.

So that's it. I am a photographer!