Photographer's Christmas Wishlist

I can barely call myself a photographer. Actually I can't call myself a photographer. But I do have a DSLR camera and I can shoot in manual so I guess I'm close right?

I can already feel this christmas being "photographer" themed.  Here's a few of the things I'm asking for.

 

1. Photoshop Elements 12-  I definitely need this! My pictures could use some editing, and I want to begin shooting in RAW.

2. Camera bag- This Jo Tote literally made my heart skip a beat!  This mint color is amazingly beautiful and I want this bag so bad.  I don't know if I could fork out the money for it or ask someone to get it for me but I sure do love it!

3. Lens Cap Holder- I always end up throwing my Lens cap down or trying to hold it awkwardly while taking the perfect shot so having this lens cap holder on my camera strap would be perfect!

4. SD Card Reader- This is a necessity, I can't believe I have lived this long without one to be honest.  I hate nothing more than trying to find the USB cord that fits that certain camera to get the pictures of the SD card, it would be so  much easy to have a reader to pop the card in and download the pictures to the computer.

5. Macro Filters- I'm not real sure what these are or how to use them, but they are cheap and look neat, so I'll give them a try!

6. LensPens cleaning pens-  Two words- MUST HAVE!

7. Cannon 50mm f/1.8 lens-  Need I say more, this lens is said to be one of the best camera lens to have. So of course I must get one to try out!

 

lost my paper....that sucks!

Completely unrelated but I can't focus on anything else right now and I need to vent. I lost my entire paper for school. Thankfully it was only 2 page paper, but it was finished! I was fixing to turn it in! I know your probably thinking, why didn't you save it dummy. Well I thought I did! Evidently it was a autorecovery file I was saving, so when my computer shut down, bye bye autorecovery file. So I only have a few days to rewrite it but instead I'm saying screw it for a little bit. I'll start on it sometime tomorrow!

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St. Jude Dream Home

I'm going to assume all you readers already know what St. Jude is. For those who may not, it is a children's research and treatment center for catastrophic diseases. It is well known for only accepting what the child's insurance will pay and not asking for a penny more. It currently costs 1.8 Million dollars a day for St. Jude to be open. Let me say that again, 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS A DAY.

Throughout all my school years, fundraisers were held every year to raise money for St. Jude. We had St. Jude jumpathons, St. Jude Mathathons and all sorts of other little fundraisers to help raise what little bit of money we could to  help out with St. Jude's daily costs.  I listen to the St. Jude radiothon for hours and cry the whole time.  Several years ago two middle school aged children from my hometown were both diagnosed with the same type of leukemia.  They were both treated at St. Jude and both were able to live a few years longer thanks to the treatment at St. Jude. 

Another great way money is raised for St. Jude is by a Dream Home Giveaway.  With this a very nice home is built and gave away with no compensation for the contractors. I believe this has been done for 7 years now, but this is my first year actually touring the home and I must say, I am amazed. Tickets to be entered to win the Dream Home are $100 each and several other prizes are also given away as well. Please click to enlarge the pictures, they look way better enlarged!

I wish I could have toured the home sooner, so I could have wrote a blog post before the giveaway was over but I toured it Wednesday night and have been on vacation since Thursday.  I will tour it earlier next year and hopefully will be able to raise a few additional dollars for St. Jude through my post!

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Guess What I Got....

This weekend has been one for the books! My weekends are not normally exciting enough to do a weekend post but I have to share what all has happened this weekend. I didn't get off work til 8 on Friday, so we will just skip over that day.  On to Saturday!

Saturday morning, My boyfriend and I got up super early and went to the drag strip. A big event was going on and there was tons to do at the park. We watched an LS engine swap, some autocross, looked at some good cars, and watched a whole lot of drag races.
 
 
Once we were to hot and tired to be there any longer, we headed home so I could check the mail. And there it was...

My new Canon DSLR was sitting on the front porch, I absolutely love it. Thanks to my boyfriend, I got it way sooner than I had plan on purchasing one. So to celebrate the new arrival, I spent the rest of the day taking pictures.

  

I still have so much to learn, and I can't wait. A macro lens came with the camera but I believe I'm going to need a wide angle lens too, any one want to buy me one??? haha Sunday was jam packed and I was so busy I didn't take any decent pictures. I do have a funny story to share. Boyfriend's tractor tore up so as he was working on pulling it home, I was goofing off on the four wheeler. It began to sprinkle and I high tailed it to the house. One I got to the house I parked the four wheeler under some trees so I wouldn't get soaking wet and waited for him to make it back to the house. While I was waiting, bugs started swarming around me. I didn't think much about it, swatted a time or too and decided to get off before those bugs started biting. Once I got a few feet away from the four wheeler I started watching this swarming and realized I parked the four wheeler in a huge yellow jacket nest. Yup that's right, leave it to me to park a four wheeler in a yellow jacket nest. At one point I bet there was 200 yellow jackets, if not way more on that four wheeler. After several hours, the four wheeler was still being swarmed but not as bad, so put the four wheeler in neutral and pulled it out from the nest. My boyfriend ended up getting stung but only once. I can't believe I didn't get stung multiple times.

Choosing my Perfect Match

Okay, I'm pretty sure I have mentioned how bad I have been wanting a DSLR camera. I literally can't stop thinking about anything else other than a new camera. I'm constantly looking for good deals and something that would be affordable. And I've gotten to the point I'm not real sure what to buy.

Recently, a person I work with brought their new Canon Rebel T3i to work and let me play with it for a little bit. He showed me how to operate it and let me take a few pictures and I must say I was IN LOVE! So every since then I have been set on buying a T3i, until I finally sign papers on my land and was welcomed into the world of debt.

So thanks to this new life of living with debt, I don't really want to fork out $600 on a T3i if I'm not even sure how much I'll  use it, and if I'll ever figure out how to use it. Therefore I've been thinking about going with a slightly used cheaper option.

I have been considering a Canon T3, or a XSI. I thought about a T2i for a little bit but decided if I was going to fork out that kind of money, I might as well spend a little extra and get the T3i.

So let me hear some of your opinions...

I don't think the T3 would be much of a noticeable difference to someone who has never owned a DSLR, but I have never even messed with a canon XSi.

What would you all do?!?

Linking up: Frugal Friday , Frugalicious Friday, Funky Junk Interiors

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