New Camera!

Well, I finally did it. I finally made the leap and purchased a new digital camera for myself. I went to my favorite online retailer, Amazon.com, and completed the transaction (the camera has been sitting in my cart for over a month). It will be here on Wednesday!

If you'd see the one that I have right now, you would know that I am LOOOOOOONG overdue. My brother has even told me that he's embarassed to go anywhere with me if I take my old one. We call it "The Brick." It's a Kodak DC3400 Zoom, which my husband bought for me for my birthday in December of 1999. Now, granted it's old and it's huge and it's definitely outdated; however, it's done the job for me quite proper, so I can't complain. Aside from the size, however, the LCD screen is about shot, it's a battery hog, and soon I don't think I'll be able to purchase the type of Compact Flash cards it needs anymore. Regardless, I'm still going to hold on to it as our "beater" camera.

So, let's get back to the new purchase. Oh, the new purchase. I'm quite pleased with it: The Canon PowerShot A720IS 8MP Digital Camera with 6x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom. I am drooling over it for many reasons (visit Canon for the full spec). First, at one of my old jobs we worked on a marketing piece for Canon, and we had the opportunity to interview several well-known photographers (Greg Gorman and Barbara Bordnick, to name a few). I didn't do the interviews myself, but I did get to hear them and transcribe them, which eventually transformed into training materials that taught photographers how to make the transition from film to digital. Because of the testimonials these folks gave about Canons, I was sold immediately (granted, they were using the very high-end series at the time, but still...it didn't take much convincing). Second, Canon products continue to receive excellent ratings, and some of my favorite photos I see on Flickr are shot with a Canon (check out my friend's stream of GORGEOUS macro shots here).

So, I'm looking forward to doing shots of my jewelry for my shop, and testing out this little fella just to see what he can do. In the next few weeks, I anticipate posting some strange and random moments in time, courtesy of my Canon, but I doubt anyone will mind. You can probably anticipate dogs, cats, backyard bird scenes, and the wonderful, wonderful colors of fall. Have a beautiful evening folks.

Peace, love, and thousands of camera clicks,
Chelsea

p.s. Also arriving with my camera will be Mark Lareau's new book, Getting Started Making Metal Jewelry. Yeehaw I'm gonna be having some fun in the very near future!

Six Things About Me: #4

I'm getting closer...here's #4: My Siblings are the Most Talented People I Know!

I have three of 'em, here's a rundown of their wonderful skills (all of them are younger):

Brother, James ("J"): Musician (guitar, harmonica, banjo, bass) and soccer player

Sister, Courtney ("Court"): Artist (just about anything...painting, pottery, you name it!), fluent Spanish speaker

Brother, Seth ("Sether"): Athlete (mostly baseball), soon to be drummer, and soon to be writer (if he takes my advice and changes his college major to something writing-intensive...he's good at it!)

Not to mention, my sister-in-law, Kelly (married to James), is also quite a skillful chickie: She's a photographer, she's an artist (graphic design, illustration, etc.), she does stained glass, she dabbles in metalsmithing, she does jewelry, she does knitting...the list goes on and on.

Hopefully you'll see Courtney, Kelly, and Chelsea on Etsy soon.