I'm plenty proud of myself: not only did I finally buy the Olympus C-5060 Wide Zoom today, using a $200 gift certificate given to me upon my college graduation four years ago, but I actually haggled for a 256MB Lexar CompactFlash card and saved ten dollars. A man on one side of the counter goes home with a commission, a man on the other side with an industry-darling digital camera. After assembling and prepping the device, I've spent the past two hours switching back and forth between reading the manual and pressing buttons. Neither a wonk nor finicky, I'm overjoyed with the quality, ease-of-use and wealth of photographic decisions available to me. A few snapshots have been taken in the interests of working kinks out, one of them more interesting in its subject matter than its technical demonstration:
What do minarets; a mockup of Amiens Cathedral; and painted, armless women with masks stuck on tensile, metal necks have in common? An exercise in chasing away boredom with oil on canvas, painted in late 2000 and early 2001 — that's what.
I'll post more photographs as they, er, become available. And with a trip to Albany with the usual suspects in three or four weeks, many soon to come.
AFTER HOURS: Went to the ancestral home. Helped plant daylilies. Ate spaghetti. Watched Ghostbusters (and realized that "Library Administrator Roger Delacorte" is actor John Rothman, who played television executive "Warren Moburg" in 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon; how's that for ident?).
Naturally, I brought the camera.
