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Photo geekery

Some of you started immediately following me on Instagram when I signed up this week. Which is quite flattering given that I've posted zero photos to a photo-based platform. It's like you all are anticipating the greatness which will obviously be forthcoming! I hope I don't disappoint.

As you may know, I recently was asking around for advice about cameras. Plenty of you had opinions and I'm a fairly research-based guy so even if I didn't go your direction I appreciate the help...it annoys The Mama how long it takes me to buy anything. The upside is that I tend to be fairly happy with my purchases. Well, I finally narrowed it down to maybe 2-3 models and the eventual winner was a Nikon d3300 which is on its way to my door as I write. It's a 24 megapixel, 5 frame-per-second, crop sensor DSLR that I snagged in a bundle including 2 lenses with Vibration Reduction, a bag, a card, a wireless transmitter. It beat out a Sony mirrorless and a Canon as my choice for reasons I'll get into if there is interest.

Taking up photography as a hobby makes a lot of sense. I'm the stereotypical market...tired of taking snapshots on my smart phone and wanting to learn more about the science and technical aspects of photography. I have a wide range of things I'd want to photograph from nature to sports to portraits of my family. So investing in a nicer camera kills a lot of birds with one stone. As I've discussed with The Mama when she asked what happened to my interest in drumming or learning bass guitar, photography is a nice way to get out of the house. I can walk the city, go to museums, hang out with wildlife, walk the neighborhood. With a guitar, I'm pretty much stuck in the basement or in a room for lessons.

So...I haven't quite decided yet how I'll share whatever I create. I'm in the phase right now of trying to figure out the best spot to chat with other photography geeks and store my work. Probably someplace like Flickr. If you have a different suggestion, feel free. I'm not planning to sell anything...just want a place to show off pics with free storage. Maybe then I'll share highlights to Instagram? Dunno. But I can't wait to unbox my new toy and play.

And if any of you want to play along, I'd maybe be interested in some group assignments to motivate myself to taking interesting pictures each week. Or feel free to point me in the direction of any good blogs or websites you love as a photographer.