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January 23, 2012: New Camera

So yesterday, Pete and I took the new camera and all the accompanying bits and pieces out of the boxes. There were many boxes, many pieces. We consolidated, by putting this and that together, manuals and warranty information in one pile, cameras and lenses in another. This reminded me of going food shopping while on a bicycle trip – after, I’d go outside and remove the packaging, only to repeatedly rediscover that the packaging itself takes up a great deal of space.

Later, I read the instruction manual while Pete made dinner. There is a logic

Self Portrait
Self Portrait

to this manual which occurred to me after the fact. It’s always this way – right brain jumps around, saying let’s check out this, this, and this. Left brain continues to doze, which is often the case. After, Pete gave me an assist. His left brain was going full tilt, his right brain dozing a bit. He did not immediately go to the manual, which I thought was odd, but began fiddling with the camera, taking a very systematic approach. It was, in fact so systematic that I could not follow along. In such instances, my insides get itchy. Pete both figured out things that I had not, and covered some new ground.

At some point in time, we reached a middle-ground, with us both going back and forth between camera and manual. He was the one who, while looking at the manual, figured out the aperture setting. And I figured out how to use the guide menu. Maybe, after 26 years, we are beginning to be accommodating when it comes to one another’s learning styles.

The camera. So yes, where are we now with all this? The camera is now in its new bag, on the new combination shelf/bookcase. I will later go out and take some photos. Right now I’m shinnying up a very steep learning curve. Such things take time, and in my case, must be budgeted into the day.

Ach, I have to work on revising Raudi’s Story, feed Raudi, exercise Raudi, clean up after Raudi, and tell her what a wonderful horse she is. Otherwise, she gets impatient. And, of course, she does not know why. And there are the others, who I cannot neglect. The wind has died down, though Pete said that the plow guy came by this morning, checking out the road conditions.

And this afternoon I have to go and turn in paperwork so that I can teach animal behavior. And tonight I have to go to photography class. So at some point in the day, I will take some photos. No more point and shoot. I’ve just moved up a notch in the photographic world. I would like it if days came in 30 hour increments.

Next: 49. 1/24/12: Summer Plans gone Awry