thisgirlloveslegwarmers

Date: April 23rd, 2015

Day: Thursday

Time: 4:57 PM

Age: 29 years 1 month 29 days (or 15,334,560 minutes)

Today in history: Shakespeare was born in 1564. Happy 451st Birthday, Shakespeare.

Currently stationed: On my bed, laptop on my lap, phone to the left, mouse to the right, peanuts to left, a dog bone in a sock near my feet.

Weather: Today is cold. It’s 53 degrees F. There are days where that might not be so awful, but today there isn’t any sun, the sky is completely covered with a thick layer of stratus clouds and it’s very windy. I hate wind.

Outfit: my favorite skinny jeans, my favorite beige sweatshirt, two pairs of socks. I’m not fancy today.

Current song stuck in head: I had “favorite things” from the sound of music stuck in my head for most of the day, but right now nothing.

I’ve been drinking: A lot of tea lately. I’m back on a tea kick. Angry Orchard ciders and whiskey sours when I want some alcohol, but that hasn’t been often.

Dreams: I’m not sure I remember last night’s dreams, but a few nights ago I dreamt I was both a bridesmaid and photographer at a clients wedding (whom I already photographed). I forgot I was the photographer until just as the wedding was starting, rushed to get my camera, then couldn’t get it to work which terrified me so much that I distinctly remember looking up in my dream and thinking “This doesn’t seem real. It can’t be. Wake up.” And I did. So far that’s the most control I’ve had in dreams – being able to wake myself up. A non-working camera during a wedding IS one of my worst nightmares, I will say – asleep or no.

Current TV show: Still Friends, but I’m on the 10th season and trying to take it slow. I don’t want it to end, you guys! Chris and I watch a lot of Brooklyn99 and have recently gotten into a show called Garfunkel and Oates. And naturally: game of thrones.

Current Book: I finished Mrs. Poe, which was definitely a fun and educational read. I’m floating in-between books right now, which means I’m reading a random page here and there out of about 30 different non-fiction books and haven’t decided on a fiction one yet. I’ve been slowly reading the book “Jitterbug Perfume” for the seven or eight months and really love it, but it has dense diction and is easy to put down for a while.

Worst moment(s) of the week: today’s weather? a bad night’s sleep? This week has been pretty benign, but as usual I have been sleeping pretty terribly.

Best moment(s) of the week: Getting my new camera. I can’t even.

What’s new?: So glad you asked.

First: Roux got spayed. We had to wake up dreadfully early and take her in, and not only did we take her in but we also took both cats to get updates on vaccines. I’m glad that it’s all out of the way, but our bank account was none too pleased. Doing it all at once is convenient (sort of… getting the cats into kennels is the worst, and Aster wouldn’t shut up at all. She meowed the entire ride there, the entire time at the vet, and the entire trip home) but costly.

Roux getting spayed had me nervous and emotional in a way I wasn’t expecting. I couldn’t really sleep the night before. I was signing a paper that said “death is unlikely but possible…” when a woman came and took her away for her surgery. Roux loves the vet. She was so excited to be with a new friend that she trotted after her without looking back once. From that moment until we left the vet, I was choking back tears and asking Chris over and over, “You don’t think that’s the last time we’ll see her, right?”

We were both relieved when we got the call saying she was fine. When I picked her up the poor girl was so freaking tired you could tell she was using every ounce of energy she had to say hello. When I got her in the car she fell right to sleep.

Processed with VSCOcam with f2 preset

And she was miserable for the rest of the night. She just slept. It was the first day and night since we got her that I was home and didn’t have to entertain her. I didn’t much know what to do with myself.

The only (temporary) downfall to Roux being spayed is her recovery requirements. She isn’t allowed to exercise or take walks for almost two weeks (one week down so far). Implementing this has been next to impossible. Roux, as those of you who know her will agree, is insanely energetic. She’s calmed down a touch in the past month but if she doesn’t exercise during the day she WILL be terribly behaved. Sometimes her energy just explodes out of her and she runs back and forth across a room about thirty times as fast as she can without stopping. So I’m losing my mind just a little. On the bright side, it’s good that she feels fine afterward, is eating healthy and acting healthy.

Second: I got a new camera.

It was horribly expensive and we’ve been saving for months for it, but it was mostly necessary. I mentioned my camera-malfunction nightmare, right? As a wedding photographer, I need a backup camera just in case something happens to my primary. I had my previous SLR, but now I pretty much always have a second shooter (usually Chris) and he gets that camera. Except that camera isn’t even that great. Great for amateur photos, but for a fast-paced wedding day with key, pivotal moments of almost always moving subjects in almost always low light? I need something superb. And so does my second shooter. So now Chris gets my D700, I get this marvelous D810, and my old D300 will chill in my bag as our backup. (Cue nightmare that all the cameras malfunction at once).

Let me tell you. I was not expecting to fall so fast and so hard for this beautiful piece of digital hardware. Right out of the box (after an agonizing hour waiting for the battery to charge – my only complaint: the batteries are different than my other two SLRs) it amazed me. I knew it would be faster but I didn’t know it would be THAT much faster (I know it doesn’t make sense if you don’t know the D700 and then compare it to this upgrade yourself, but take my word for it). And the sound. It’s so, so freaking quiet. But even better? The pictures are unbelievable. I didn’t realize it would be SUCH a noticeable difference, but it is. It very much is. The low light performance is outstanding (ISO 128,000 still looks fine. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY EIGHT T H O U S A N D). It has video. VIDEO! And the video is so, so pretty!

Before I start squealing like a fan girl, I’ll just sum up my thoughts: I’m terribly glad I bought this camera.

So I spent all of yesterday getting to know it, learning what was different (it’s mostly the same as the D700 body but a few buttons have switched which continues to confuse me), and troubleshooting. There are always random problems that arise when you get something new. The RAW files on this camera are considerably more enormous than my other camera and I only shoot RAW. Which means, of course, that I can fit fewer images onto my once-considered-unnecessarily-huge 32GB memory card. I spent at least an hour trouble-shooting that one. Even more annoying, my go-to import and basic edits software (lightroom) doesn’t support the RAW files on this camera. At least, my version didn’t. So I had to purchase the upgrade, which was a bummer. And of course I have to buy even more batteries for this camera since the batteries and backups that I have for my other SLRs aren’t compatible. Annoying.

But UGH. How I love this camera! Here are some of the first photos I took, unedited:

Yes, that is a Christmas wreath. It will likely always be there.

This one actually has been slightly edited. With VSCOs new free presets in LR! They’re actually really awesome!

I know you don’t have my I’ve-seen-thousands-of-D700-pics-SOOC brain, but I’m just so excited about how great these pictures are in comparison with anything my old SLR gave me. That isn’t to say my d700 wasn’t (and isn’t) also fantastic, because it also it. But not quite as.

Anyway. Sorry about all that photography jargon! Hopefully you just skipped over it if you were bored.

Third new thing: I got a fitbit one activity tracker. I’ve been looking at them for ages and recently decided I just really had to have one. I carry my phone around nearly everywhere strictly for pedometer purposes and wanted something a bit less…cumbersome. With more specs. So far, I really love it. It also has a sleep tracker and has informed me that my sleep is pretty terrible. I might log seven and a half hours, but I only slept six of them. I basically already knew this, but it is interesting to see a graph of my awake and/or restless moments throughout the night.

Fourth new thing: Chris finished classes this week – on Tuesday, more specifically. He is trying hard to catch up with work so that he has all weekend to study hard for finals After next week he’ll be on summer “vacation” until September. He’s very ready. I’m very ready. We’re both very, very ready.

What has been bothering me: several things. One – Roux can’t exercise. That is certainly trying. Two – my knee. I believe I tore my IT band and I can’t get it back in order. Every time I run, no matter how slow and cautious I take it, it almost always hurts in the end. This is making me insane. Absolutely insane. I just want to run, and I can’t. Three- Zoe. Zoe is so annoying. Four – this weather. Five – the fact that I can’t fall asleep at night. Six: my business website is turtle-paced. Troubleshooting has been tedious and awful.

I’ve been missing: New York. I really want to go back to New York.

Today I’m thankful for: a warm house, a mostly-wonderful puppy, and an amazing husband. I’m thankful for my new camera which has me insane with excitement. I’m thankful for peanuts and mochi.

Random fact of the day: Pinocchio is Italian for “pine-head”

Your link of the day: 29 amazing photos

Photo I edited today: