How did this happen?
Everyone forgot haiku!
Unacceptable.
Went out to the park
Didn’t take shower today
Think I’ll take one now…
Thinking and thinking
“AT”, I ask, “Whats different?”
All of nothing, sir
Can I keep this peace?
Or will it melt away soon
Leave more emptiness
Something can change now
Think it’d be a good time, yep
Or hell, maybe not.
This is my almost-sad camera story.
Last week, as I was leaving work, our camera wiggled out of its case and hit the cold, hard concrete sidewalk. I scooped it up, took a quick photo to test its function, and all seemed well. However, when I got it home, I noticed that it had a small battle wound and that the shutter button was now in a constant state of semi-depressed - meaning that it was going nutty trying to auto-focus on everything. (Geez, that sounds like me sometimes). When I tried to take some additional test photos, I found that none of the setting or function buttons worked. I couldn’t control the flash, the macro feature, anything. The camera was gimpy, and was taking gimpy photos.
We’ve had our camera for a little over three years, and it has been one of my favorite purchases ever. It’s been with us during family vacations, birthdays, and took the first photos of both Lugnut and Wingnut shortly after their births. Needless to say, I was pretty sad about what happened. But, you know, behind every broken item is the opportunity to consume, consume, consume.
So, even though the last thing we need right now is the expense of a new camera, Bos and I found ourselves perusing the ‘net last night to see what shiny new things we could find. Now Bos had heard about one in particular a few weeks back - the Nikon D40. Evidently, the good (marketing) folks at Nikon gave out 200 of these to residents of Georgetown, South Carolina and instructed them to take pictures, which Nikon is now using in the D40 marketing campaign. Pretty smart.
Marketing campaign aside, I like this camera. It gets solid reviews at CNET, Consumer Reports and several other places. It’s a digital SLR, which, despite my attachment to the current camera, I’ve been wanting for quite a while. And as far as digital SLRs go, it comes at a good price. A good enough price for me to become very tempted at hooking myself up with one.
I mean, come on, how am I going to take decent pictures if I have no control over something as simple as the flash?
I woke up this morning with a serious case of I-wanna-new-camera. I price-shopped a little bit, found some stores in Knoxville that carry the D40 so we could go see it in person. Touch it. Caress it. Oh yeah, I’ve got it bad.
I decided that my Camera Shy photo today should be of the current camera, so I got it out, put it next to the mirror and was going to attempt to take a picture without any of those handy setting and function features.
And you know what? I think I must have scared it into behaving, because this morning, all the buttons worked.
I’m glad it’s working again. Really, I am. But I’m left with the consumeristic momentum that builds when you shop around for something new and shiny. Where do I go with that?