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Learning Curve
Maybe I should call this post “be careful what you wish for”.
After I had been using my D3000 camera for about a year I began to get a little frustrated with its limitations. Oh there were ways to work around them but I came down with a bad case of camera lust.
At the time Ritz Camera was still around and I spent some time playing with a Nikon D7000. It seemed to have what I wanted. It could be set to automatically bracket for HDR and it had a place for a manual remote trigger. Those were the 2 biggies I was interested in at the time.
But time passes and I never seemed to get the money together. Then Ritz closed. More time passed and I spotted the D7100. I didn’t run into much buzz about the D7000 any more so I began researching the 7100. I wanted it it but there is something to be said for wanting things from afar.
The opportunity arose this weekend for me to pick up the D7100 for a very reasonable price and I jumped on it. I couldn’t wait to get it home and charge up the batteries.
By the time the first battery was charged it was dark so I plunked myself in my recliner with the camera to play. The first thing that threw me a curve was that I was taking pictures but nothing showed up on the live view.
I thought I was doing something wrong. Now if I had looked in the instruction manual I would have seen (in about 5 minutes or less) that to view the photos you need to push a little arrow and Voila! there they are.
Now I went searching for the histograms and (Shame on me) a way to get out of auto. The dial was 2 tiered and I had no idea what those choices were!
My oh my it will be awhile before I’m as comfortable with this baby as I was with my old entry level D3000. I have my work cut out for me.
By the end of the 2nd day I had managed to get all my settings in the camera and managed to get to the aperture and shutter modes so I am making progress but it still feels a bit like a struggle.
Practice Shot of Rocky taken from across the livingroom
Like I said, be careful what you wish for. I’m going to have quite a learning curve on this one!
It’s going to be a Busy few Months
Hello again everyone. Work is beginning to slow down for the agents. It hasn’t for me yet because we still have a lot of closings in the pipeline. Once those are done my lull will begin.
In the meantime I had the representative from Home Depot out to look at my kitchen and give me options. I’d considered several local firms but they were really expensive. Then I saw a home that had been done by Home Depot. I couldn’t believe it. It was beautiful. I think of Home Depot as DIY but they have a whole crew for remodels and like my company, they are paid on customer satisfaction.
At first I was going to do a remodel and knock down a wall, pull out all the cabinets and so on but there was a hitch. The electrical panel in my unit wasn’t up to code. To do a remodel would mean redoing the electric in the unit. Very expensive on top of the remodel cost plus we’d have to pull permits for all the work.Work that requires permits can be tricky if you want to sell. I’ve run across that more than once when getting the documents together for a closing.
So option 2. Leave the wall, and do a “Reface”. It’s not much less than a remodel but it doesn’t require permits. I liked that idea better than adding an extra $10 K to the project so I picked out new doors, hardware, back splash, tile, counters and wrote a very big check. Still I can see what it will look like in my minds eye. It will be so different and I’ll be able to open the drawers without them cracking and breaking in my hands!
About a week after the salesman was out I got a call from the estimator. The salesman had measured but this guy was out to confirm the measurements and my choices of color, tile etc. Good thing because the wrong tile was on the order. We caught that and made the correction. This guy was very meticulous.
I’ve got one more appointment before they can start. The counter top people have to come out and make templates. They will be here on Friday. I requested that day off so I can get everything off the counters and round up the cats while they work and measure.
Once the work starts it is expected to take 1 week. They start on Monday and finish on Friday. I can’t wait!
It was a Cold but Sunny Day
Last Sunday was cold! Good thing it was sunny because if it had rained it probably would have turned to snow. It was windy too but that didn’t slow down Dawn and Alex, my guests with their mother at my company’s annual Customer Appreciation Event.
This year it was at Belkin Outlook Farm in Natick. The farm has apple picking, a play area with little animals and a train to get you around the property.
Each attendee got to pick a pumpkin and there were loads of pumpkins! The grape arbors are gorgeous even if they were past grape peak.
The company served a barbecue lunch with ribs, hot dogs and hamburgers. Well maybe we should call them cold dogs because in spite of the chefs best efforts the food chilled as soon as it came off the grill.
I don’t know if it was special because of the event or if they always feature an animal ride but this time they had a camel ride. Dawn was in line for that in a flash but Alex preferred the warmer inside of the Lego building.
It was cold enough that the battery for the camera died way too soon. The spare was in the car because I didn’t take the cold into consideration.
OOPS! But the photos I got seemed to catch the atmosphere and the fun.
