I just couldn't think of anything clever to put for my title, the creativity bug has left me in that area...I feel a little smug. It's chilly, rain is being forecast along with drizzly gross weather, but last week for NE Ohio, the weather was low 60's, not a cloud in the sky weather. I lucked out so much on that, and I'm terribly happy because it meant that the sun was bright, the air was warmish and all of the animals at the zoos were very active. And as many of my watchers may have noticed, I have had a very successful week off while spending time at the zoo probably 90% due to this lovely weather. I've been trying not to spam everyone's inboxes with photos, but I'm so damned proud of a lot of the ones I got!

My 365 project has been going steadily so far. Some photos were easy to come by, while some nights I've been driving home, trying to figure out what to shoot. A lot of the photos have been set up and still life and this has become something of a blessing for me because I've relied on natural light and happening into the right moment, whereas this is making me think about something to shoot, composing it how it will look right, and getting the right lighting on it. By the end of the year, I would hope this will help make my still life photos way better.

If you saw in my Butters and Bokeh photo--I purchased a prime lens last week! I can't tell you how much I love love love love love it. Although it's not full frame on my D80 and shoots closer to 80mm rather than 50, that's okay. The 1.4 aperture is wonderful and I love the effects I can now play with, it's really making me antsy for the Christmas lights to go up and start shooting those and playing with DoF. But I just can't rave about this lens enough! I decided to go with the faster lens in the long run--it was almost a $200 difference in lenses, but between costume contest money, birthday money and some money from a portrait shoot that I'm doing this weekend, it put this lens to practically paid for. If any of you out there can afford it, I would highly recommend getting a prime, it is SO worth it!

I also found that a camera shop in Cleveland rents out their lenses--next on my list of lenses I want to invest in is a good macro lens (or if I go Nikon/Nikkor--micro)--but due to what I want and the sheer cost associated to the lens itself I don't want to invest in it and then get it and think "Oh gawd, this sucks, I can't work with this!" So I'm going to rent the lens in the next few months, play with it, see if I like it or if I want to bump back to a 60mm (because I don't know when I'll eventually move up to full frame format body anyway).

Ach...I've rambled! Enough about me, let's move on to my Random Watcher Feature!!

This time it's ! She's only been on dA for about three months, but already you can see a budding photographer in her zoo photos (which, let's face it, I have severe partiality to!). But she doesn't limit herself to just zoo photography, she also finds beauty in the world around her, whether it's flowers, her pets or her family. So here are some of my favorites out of her gallery and you should head on over and take a look at her gallery as well and give her some love!





Clubs I'm in:


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