Shutterbug
Carl Schurz Park, NYC.
I have a new camera!
In preparation for a big trip coming up early next year (more on that later), I decided to invest in a camera with a bit more sophistication than my faithful point-and-shoot. I’m now the proud owner of a refurbished Nikon D40. It’s a DSLR, which in simple terms is a smarter camera than a point-and-shoot and gives you more control over the kind of picture you take. I’m taking a workshop at Adorama next week on how to make the most of it.
This means I have a new hobby: taking shitty pictures while the camera and I get acquainted. In the last five days I have photographed blurry ducks, blurry leaves, blurry old people sitting on benches, blackened landscapes and portraits of my husband rendered ghost-like by an over-aggressive flash. Nothing makes you feel powerful like reducing the spectacular beauty of Central Park in fall into a bleached blur of burnt-orange squiggles.
The great news about the digital age is that amateurism is cheap. A few years ago, a staff photographer at my newspaper lent me his 35-mm film camera. After a short tutorial on f-stops and shutter speed, an afternoon of giddy snaps and a trip to Walgreens’ photo counter, I had three rolls of dark, blurry pictures and $35 less in my wallet. Now practice shots disappear with a click of a button, and posterity will never know that you accidentally photographed your own shoes.
