Got Me A New Camera

Thanks to one of my brothers, I'm the proud owner of his gently used Nikon D-200 and the motor to drive it [with two industrial strength batteries].  I also inherited his Nikon D-100 a while back. I guess that makes me about as digital as a person can get without being a robot. 

          Thanks to having a camera in their faces ever since birth, his kids are very easy to take pictures of. They're willing to stop what they're doing and smile at the goofy adult who is snapping shots. And even do it again when you mess up. Even nicer, they always have real smiles, not those bizarre clown faces that some kids make. 

          So muchas gracias to Annie, Chris, and Nick for letting me take their photos morning, noon, and night during my week with your family on the Outer Banks. I'll even let you win at Crazy Eights next time. . .

          For the uninitiated, the Outer Banks is not a group of banks with belly buttons that protrude out of their stomachs. That's an Outie. Or a car -- that's an Audi. It's a spit of land as far east as you can get in North Carolina. Far out from the rest of the state. Thus Outer. As in Mongolia, except it's North Carolina. 

I also think it's pretty obvious that none of these photos has been digitally enhanced. All of them could be worked on, but part of me hates messing with reality. Or my camera's version of it. One of the reasons I miss film is that you could get some awesome results in days gone by without having to resort to artificial tweaking. Fujicolor 800 was my all time favorite film to use before it was downgraded to blech. Its colors were so vibrant they looked lit from behind. I like the Kodak Portra 160, even though it costs an arm and a leg. In olden days, Kodak anything was always reliable, but, except for Ektachrome, tended to go a little too warm for my taste. But now, anything goes. And Photoshop rules.