Project 365: The arrival of a long-anticipated new toy

I‘m still catching up on my 365 pictures. I’ve been taking them every day, it’s just hard to find time to write the weekly wrap posts! This week’s photos include a trip, a party, and a most excellent new toy.

I told you about the trip already, but here’s a recap of the pictures that made the cut as the photo of the day. First, this shot from the window of the plane as we’re ascending out of Ottawa. This is the Ottawa river, just a little bit west of town.

And a few dozen pictures of Lucas as he obstinately refuses to pose for me.

We rushed home from Toronto to make it in time for Tristan’s 9th birthday party the very next day.

We’ve been having some wretched late-winter weather lately. Rain, then freeze, then snow, then more rain. In fact, we had so much rain late last week that we had seepage in the basement — ironically, in the opposite corner of the house from the mold issues we had last fall. Luckily, this is not our yard — but it shows the conditions pretty well.

After a successful transition to the big boy bed, Lucas “helped” me disassemble the crib this week. I’ve managed to move it to the garage, but I just can’t bring myself to turf it entirely yet. Knowing me, I’ll probably let it sit there for another year or two before I actually have the heart to get rid of it.

Poor Katie. This is an old obedience-school trick we learned, back when she was still a rambunctious pup. She has to wait for permission to eat the cookie, which she does, but never without the pained and long-suffering expression you see here.

Between the birthday party shot above and this next one of a cut flower in my mom’s kitchen, there’s a lot of yellow going on. It was right around this point that I realized that my old D40 was having the same sort of trouble processing yellows that it was having processing saturated reds a few months ago.

In the end, it’s not a bad picture, but I had such a hard time managing the colour that Beloved and I started to seriously discuss replacing the aging but well-loved D40. It’s approaching 35,000 shutter activations and is nearly four years old. I adore the camera, but it’s becoming a little, um, eccentric, especially in challenging situations with a lot of saturated colour, and I think the autofocus is starting to wander.

I’ve been coveting a D90 since I started my first 365 project back in 2009, but it seemed financially imprudent to upgrade when the D40 was satisfying almost all of our photographic needs. The D90 has really dropped in price lately, and I had a little money put aside specifically from blog and photography earnings, so Beloved and I agreed that it was time to consider an upgrade. I started doing the research, and realized that for not very much more money, I could get a D7000 instead. When I read about the incredible low-light performance, and the amazing reviews it was getting (Ken Rockwell calls it the best digital camera he’s ever used, period) I was sold.

It arrived late last week, in the midst of a day so insane with a leaking basement and arriving relatives that I barely had time to pull it out of the box. But when I did, it was love at first sight.

It’s the most amazing camera I’ve ever laid my hands on, and I can’t tell you how excited I am. I can see a huge difference already, and I’ve barely scratched the surface of what it’s capable of.

I am very lucky, and very, very happy. Who knew? Some things *are* worth waiting for!