Traveling Lighter

Somehow I lost it. The spark of joy in creating. A year and a few months ago I bought a "serious" camera- a real DSLR, a beautiful and fantastic d90. And then- I stopped taking pictures for fun. I never had my camera with me unless it was for a Driftwood assignment or we were having "A Family Occasion (in capital letters). Slowly I stopped looking for the unique angle or interesting play of light. As that happened a bit of staleness crept in where there used to be vibrancy. This was really very sad.

Then there was Amber (yeppers, I blame Amber). She kept on posting these amazing photos on her Facebook page. I could feel her excitement and as happy as I was for her I couldn't help thinking, "I used to feel that way." And so I made some decisions. The first one- the most important one (regarding photography anyway) was this. If the best camera is the one that you have with you then I needed to travel more lightly. My lovely SLR wasn't doing me any good sitting in its bag on the bedroom floor. It maybe the perfect camera for someone else but it just wasn't the right one for me. If it tells you anything I consistently referred to it as "The Beast." And I really hated that bringing my camera places with me required a decision rather than just being habit.

I sold the The Beast. I wanted to feel sad to see it go- after all, at the time I bought it the camera represented a goal reached and another one in sight. But I didn't. I felt relief. Then last night I made a late afternoon Best Buy run and bought a Canon G11. It fits me. I am in love with it already. So, I'm traveling lighter, remembering creativity, and documenting, once again, the world around me in my own way.

Here are the first shots that I took last night.

And since this new part of my journey is just beginning I will end this with: "To be continued..."