Today, my camera will see daylight!

We got an amazing deal on our Canon Rebel Xsi between Christmas and New Years this past year, but for a while I was afraid to use it. So yes, a <$600 piece of equipment sat, unopened on my kitchen table, for a week before I had the courage to open it up. Once I dad the nerve to open the box, I decided I didn't really want to do anything with it until I knew what I was doing. To be fair, this is the most expensive piece of electronic equipment I have even owned (besides our compter & tv, but those are pretty fool proof) and I'll be damned if I completely break it before it's even broken in. So I bought The Canon Rebel Xsi for Dummies. And I read that bad boy cover to cover. After three nights of reading I learned two things:

1. I am in way over my head and
2. it's ok to use the automatic settings while I'm figuring stuff out.

You'll hear a lot of folks say that DSLR's are a waste of money if you're going to use the auto settings. You'll also hear a lot of folks say that it's not the camera that takes good photos, it's the camera operator (I just can't phathom using the word photographer to describe myself). Well.... maybe that's true.

But you've got to start somewhere. And I'm starting with auto settings. And even with the auto settings, my photos are 100% better then they were with my P&S. The dogs eyes are brown in these photos and not demon yellow! The colors are so much sharper! There's depth to them!

I've owned this camera for just about a month now, and today will be the first day my camera goes outside. To the dog park. Where I hope nothing breaks.

Yup, it's time to really break in the camera. We didn't spend a shit ton of Christmas money at Best Buy for nothing, right?

Right.

I'll be back with the fruits of my labor later on today. If I can figure out how to get the photos onto my computer. I haven't quite learned to do that yet.