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Kyra just sent me this photo, from a store she and Sister Williams are currently shopping. I can’t even imagine what else is on the shelves…

… Oh, wait, my imagination need not run amok. She followed up with another photo a few minutes later.

Wow. Just wow.

In our conversation with Kyra yesterday she mentioned that she loves receiving photos. We told her there really isn’t all that much to photograph in our daily lives, and any pictures we send would be kind of boring. But she insisted, so now it’s my goal to capture all the mundane activities we do.

To wit…

Zaque plays video games with friends:

Alex reads a comic book:

I work on my seminary lesson:

And who would want to miss the thrill of Laralee drying dishes?

Yep, I’m pretty sure Kyra will be excited about all of this.

Of course it’s nice to celebrate moms on Mother’s Day, but for the parents of missionaries, it’s a special day because it’s one of two days each year we get to talk with them. So, yesterday evening we connected with Kyra over Google Hangouts (yay bigscreen TV!) and had a great chat for almost two hours.

We traded jokes and stories, and had a great time. It’s always a little sad to say goodbye, but in her weekly email today she mentioned that it wasn’t as hard for her to hang up as it had been at Christmas (our other day to talk). She’s working hard and making us proud.

Proving that they’re not the intellectual kings of the animal world, once again we found a baby bunny had fallen into our window well. This seems to happen often, and it’s always an opportunity for Zaque to climb down and rescue the little guys.

Afterward he usually sits on the couch with the traumatized bunny, and quietly pets him. It’s kind of touching how gentle he is with the critters.

As of today, I have a new mantra.

(from Inception)

For over fifteen years, I’ve shopped at various times at B&H Photo and Video, which is a family-owned camera and electronics business in New York. They have good prices on everything, and I always prefer the mom-and-pop stores over the behemoth corporations.

Now that I’m getting more serious about my photography, I find myself poking around for better lenses, and that journey often takes me over to B&H. Today I was looking at a few lenses, and although I wasn’t ready to click “buy” on any of them, I noticed this message at the top of every page on the web site:

Clearly the B&H owners are Jewish, and since it’s Saturday, they’re observing Shabbat. I think it’s really cool that they actually close their online store during their holy day. I have a deep respect for people who don’t let “the world” interfere with their faith.

Last night, Zaque headed out to prom with his good friend Ma’ata. They had a great time, of course, and it’s always nice to know she’s just as goofy as he is.

After the disastrous attempt to sell my camera on Craigstlist, I thought maybe eBay would be a better forum. Sure, I’d have to pay shipping costs and a selling fee, but at least buyers on eBay are legitimate people. Right? Right?

Alas, no.

So far I’ve had two people “buy” the camera, but each of them had new accounts on eBay that were created literally minutes before they claimed the gear. One of them immediately closed the account, and the other started texting me to tell me his Paypal payment had cleared (it hadn’t), and he was ready for me to ship the gear to his son as a birthday gift. And his son just happens to live in– wait for it– Nigeria! In the American embassy, no less. Color me shocked.

I’ll re-list the gear again, but my hopes of a legitimate sale are fading. Apparently if you want to sell any electronic gear for more than $500, you have to deal with the bots. Sigh.

With my new camera in hand, but no time during my work day to read the manual about how to use it, I went to my ultimate league games last night and snapped about a hundred photos of our game. The results were amazing. I’m not saying I’m an amazing photographer, or even that the photos themselves were amazing, but rather that the improvement over my previous cameras was noticeable and astounding. The photos were so much sharper, and even in the fading daylight I was able to capture action in high-speed pictures.

Thom was right: a full-frame sensor makes a world of difference. Of course, I’d expect that when you buy a camera that costs more than a car, it darn well better take good pictures! I’m using low-end lenses now, so Thom’s next piece of advice is to get some better glass… but that’s another car’s worth of dough, so I’m going to have to hold off on it for a while.

When Laralee and I went on a walk in today’s gorgeous 70-degree sunny weather, I brought along my new toy and took a few photos along the path. They’re nothing breathtaking, but again, I was deeply impressed with the quality of the shots when I pulled them up in Darktable. Here are a few, with only slight editing.

Now I’ll spend the weekend reading the 404-page manual (!) and hopefully learn how to use some of the really nifty features of this camera. I’m excited for this.

So, I bought a new camera. This thing is serious, and even meets with Thom’s approval. I decided it was time to take the next step on my photography journey, and that meant stepping up from the 12-year-old DSLR I’ve been using.

Problem: The camera cost more than my first car. Yeah.

Solution: Sell my old gear! Even though it’s fairly old, it’s probably worth $600-800. Hello, Craigslist!

Next problem: Craigslist is apparently a “hive of scum and villany”, to quote Obi-Wan, because all of the text messages I’ve received about the ad so far have been scammers who want me to ship the camera to their “friend” in Florida or wherever, and they’ll pay me with Paypal. Ha, I’m not new around here, Mr. Scammer! I just start asking them questions and saying dumb stuff until they finally give up on me.