Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Awesome birthday gift


I got the bestest birthday gift ever (yes, my birthday was several months ago...but, well, I'm slow, ok). DH gave me a Canon D10 and it is awesome! My wonderful Canon 700 that I carry everywhere is a great little camera, but it is starting to wear out....the on-off button only works when it wants to. So I was thinking it was time for an upgrade, and since I have been taking so many pictures (stimulated by Becky Higgins Project 365, renamed Project Life for next year) I even had K in agreement. But there are oooohhh so many cameras out there...what's a girl to do?? Well, around this time we also decided to take a short cruise during our vacation at the end of September, and in looking at the activity choices, there was a lot of snorkeling to be had. On our first cruise in '96 we had done the swimming with the stingrays thing, and quickly discovered that the only way to get good pictures was an underwater camera...and boy are those things pricey when purchased on the tour boat! Then when we went with the in-laws to Mexico a few years later, I brought along my own disposable underwater cameras, but quickly went through both of them at Xel-Ha and then couldn't take any more underwater pictures the remainder of the trip. So I started looking around at digital underwater cameras. There are a few out there, but most seem to have really mixed reviews. And while they don't cost that much, it still seemed like a waste to buy one and potentially have it be ruined the first time underwater. But then, lucky me, Canon releases their first underwater camera. Yes, its a bit pricey, and yes, its a bit bulky and silly looking, but I love it. And it is a really nice general camera as well, so when my old Canon finally bites the dust, I'll already have a replacement. And as an added bonus...the D10 is cold tolerant as well...we had 12" of snow yesterday and I had it out quite a while last night in the snow and today in our -15 wind chill taking pictures, and it never froze up or gave me the low battery warning the whole time.

Soooo, on to the picture. This is one of my favorites of the 300 or so taken snorkeling in Nassau. These striped fish were so much fun...I was shooting away at the coral and fish along the bottom, and often when I looked up I would find myself in the middle of a large school of them. They would just swim past me like I was a normal part of their environment, and if you weren't paying attention you would even on occasion bump into one. We had a great time...now to buy our own snorkeling equipment!

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