So, I want to buy things. In particular I want to buy one thing: a new lens for my camera.

I’ve had a Nikon D40 for a while and while it’s not the best thing ever it pretty much suits my needs and nonexistent budget for upgrades. But one thing I’ve disliked for years is my lack of lenses. I only have the standard zoom lens that came with the camera. While that’s not bad, I want lenses for more specific occasions.

The one thing I really want a lens for is food photography. I write a food blog to help with my weight loss efforts. It’s just something I find easier to do than the boring methods people normally recommend for food tracking. But when I do something I tend to get obsessed and that’s where I now find myself with food photography. I want to take better pictures of my food.

Most lenses are extremely expensive, which is why I haven’t bought any for myself in the last few years of owning a DSLR. But now I find myself wanting a lens so bad I’m ready to press click on the order button. I can’t afford most of the fancy lenses but a standard 50 mm f/1.8 D Nikon lens would be a great starting lens to play with my food photography and improve my skills.

It’s only $125 on Amazon. Anyone want to grant me an item on my wish list? Yes? Anyone out there in blog land have a used one they are willing to sell?

Of course wanting a new lens or two also leads me down the path of wanting more gear including flashes and lighting equipment.  I won’t be going that direction for a while, but I do want to get a new lens before I leave the US. I would prefer before I leave Oregon, but since that’s happening next Thursday it’s not likely. But I will be getting it, some how, some way.

The Goonies House:

Astoria from Astoria Column:

Beach in Oregon:

North Head Lighthouse in Cape Disappointment State Park, Washington:

I finally went through with the Project 365 thing.

Sort of.

It might be the lamest excuse for one ever.  I used my iphone for more photos than I would like to admit.  And I messed up the dates and skipped at least 4 days, since it ended several days after the date I originally started on.  (Perhaps a bit of that could be blamed on the confusion of going abroad for a while.)  All of the pictures aren’t great.  Maybe only a few are good.

But I did it.

Project 365 is getting crossed off the life list and my camera is going back to being a special use item.  The pressure, not that there was any, is off.

For me it’s less about the pictures and more about all the wonderful things that happened while I was trying to document my life over a year. Sure, a lot of boring “oh no i forgot” pictures are in there. But there are also pictures from trips to Puerto Rico and Washington D.C. and New Zealand and more. There are pictures of friends getting married, blogging conferences, living in Vermont, vacationing with my mom and meeting the love of my life. It’s been an interesting and unpredictable year for me and this project reminds me of that fact.

So here are the 365 photos that managed to make it into the final slideshow of Project 365 greatness.

I’m enjoying posting pictures lately, more than blogging, since I’ve got so much other writing to do with my other blog and the ebook I’m working on. Here is one of my favorite places, right in the middle of Auckland.  I love the trees and how they grow out searching for the light wherever they can find it.

Haven’t seen a sunset in New Zealand yet that hasn’t been beautiful.

I’ve been sick the last few days so I haven’t been doing much.

Just wanted to say, I have the best boyfriend, and some pretty flowers:

Stick Season in Ludlow, Vermont

The leaves are gone, but it’s still quite beautiful here.

(An old photo this week, but one of my favorites to look at on a rainy day.)

“Because how we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” ~ Annie Dillard

My camera and I did a little wandering during my work break today and we ended up in the boxing room on the 3rd floor of the Downtown YMCA. It is one of my favorite rooms in the YMCA but not because I ever use it. I’ve actually only been in there a few times and never was it to workout. I just enjoy the rough feel of it, how it doesn’t have heat or air conditioning yet people still come to use it.  I love the idea that it is forgotten in the Y while everything else gets polished and updated. Like many other places in Memphis it is seemingly left behind as everything around it progresses.