Slow

I've noticed that I've slowed down in my photo taking. I'm sure you have too. In the past, this is usually a sign that I've lost interest in whatever new thing I'm doing and eventually I stop doing it all together, thus another hobby tried and tossed aside. I'm confident that this is not the case.

No, the real reason I've gone from a photo shooting frenzy to a handful every few days is because I haven't gone anywhere new. I'm usually at my house, at work or at school. My weekends are really the only time I have to take photos and lately they've been crammed full of so many things to do that I don't have a whole lot of time to take pictures. I want to. Oh how badly I would love to have a whole day to go places and shoot things. I find myself driving down the road seeing things I could take pictures of, imagining how I'd frame them and wishing I had time to stop and do so.

As time goes on I know I'll be shooting lots of pictures, in addition to obtaining newer and better lenses which will more than likely spur more photo frenzies. I really like taking pictures and I think it's definitely something I'm going to stick with. It still scares me though that I'm not taking as many as I did when I first got my camera.

I suppose it's similar to dating. You find someone that is so incredibly awesome and you fall in love with them. For a good while all you want to do is spend every waking moment with them. But as time goes on, the newness of it wears until finally you wake up next to your best friend. Things might not be as exciting as they were when you first met, but they don't have to be. You know that exciting things will happen, and they do, just not as often. My camera and I have become best friends and I know that as I get better at photography there will be a lot more exciting moments, just not all jumbled together into one big lump of joy.

The Nifty Fifty

I got a new lens for my camera recently. A 50mm f/1.8 II or the "Nifty Fifty" (also "Fantastic Plastic") as it's called. Supposedly it's one of the best and least expensive lenses you can get for a Canon and so far I agree. I've taken about 350 shots with it so far and a lot of them are really rad. The super low f-stop of 1.8 lets me take extremely cool depth of field shots. It focuses ridiculously fast and when I stop down the lens to anything above 1.8 it's very sharp. I'm not sure I'll be taking this lens off anytime soon. You can check out my latest pictures on my Flickr account if you'd like. I update it almost everyday if I can.

In other news, come this summer, I will be completely best-friendless. My buddy Bruh is heading back home for a while at the end of next week. I have no idea when he'll be back. My other friend Nick will be leaving for graduate school sometime this summer. I've known him for at least 11 or 12 years and though I don't see him that often anymore, it's still a little hard for me. I suppose I'll be alright. I make new friends pretty easily, but it'll very hard to find really great friends like Nick and Bruh.

Speaking of Bruh, his band The Vermicious Canids has two shows this weekend: Friday at The Red Eyed Fly at 10:30pm and Saturday at Independence Brewery at 1:00pm. These two shows could potentially be their last so I highly recommend you check them out live while you can.

Oh, and in case you haven't noticed, June Bugs are starting to arrive and dive bomb into things. I've already had three pull a kamikaze run on my head while sitting on my porch. I thought the new porch light I bought was supposed to NOT attract bugs.

Finally I'd like to announce that Corley and I should be having a Rock Band party sometime this month. We'll hopefully set a date soon and I'll post the details everywhere I can. Rock Band parties are tons of fun and if you haven't been to one yet you should definitely come to ours. I guarantee you'll have a blast.