I blame Heather.
She got a digital camera and started mainlining Flickr. That wasn't enough and she became a dealer and gave me a free account (which will expire at the end of June, if I don't remember to do something about it – note to self!).
I was then, of course, obliged to buy a digital camera, something I'd been considering for some time anyway, but had never set aside the funds to do.
I bought a Sony DSC-S60, a 4Mp with a very nice lens. It only has a 3x optical zoom, but you can't have everything. Especially not for the limited funds that I have available.
The Sony replaced this old friend:
My Olympus OM-1 was a gift from a good friend and is a real workhorse of a camera. I haven't used it at all since acquiring the digicam, which is a pity. I should take it along sometime and see what I can get, now that the Sony has given me so much cheap photography practice!
Before I had the Olympus, though, I used this:
Yup, you're seeing right. It's a twin-lens reflex. A Russian twin-lens reflex that takes 120mm film. It can make a fabulous photo, but requires quite a bit of skill and practice to get used to. My grandmother used it for years, although she never told me where she got it. When she gave it to me, she showed me a couple of the photos she took with it:
I'm very happy with the image quality of the Sony. I would like more zoom, but can save my pennies and get an adapter and teleconverter sometime in the future. If a rich relative ever leaves me enough money to make camera cost superfluous, I'd splurge on a Nikon D70. Fortunately (?), all my rich relatives are in fine health.
In the meanwhile, I'll leave you with a link to a fabulous site containing articles and ideas about digital photography, including
- this intriguing article full of information and links about what you're allowed to photograph and what you can't.
- For the snowbirds in my life, an article on photographing your RV (yes, apparently people do)
- a summary of the ideal vehicle for the photographer
- understanding lens perspective
- lines in nature
So it's Heather's fault, really. Thanks Heather!
Raising the Bar Strength & Conditioning 
Don’t mention it 🙂 Unfortunately I don’t get kickbacks from anything you spend due to my influence, so I don’t think I actually count as a pusher.
I’ve had a digicam (Fuji Finepix, then Canons) since Christmas 2000, and have taken about 13,000 pictures. I didn’t have a lot of use for film photography before that – took the required birthday, christmas, and holiday photos, and blinded baby Jean’s eyes with flashes on a regular basis, but the Advantix I got shortly after marriage was SO expensive to maintain that the digi was incredibly liberating. I never looked back.
If you take film shots, might be interesting to take digital shots at the same time, and compare.
Thanks for the recommendations to my site, Taking Your Camera on the Road, and I’d like to also recommend that new photographers (and old rusty ones 😉 ) take a look at two favorite article series that will also help: The Basics of Nature Photography and Patterns in Nature. And if you really want to push the photographic limits to get closer than you can imagine, Closeups in Nature.
Living and traveling on the road has its joys and pains, and we love sharing our thrills and chills with others. Hopefully you all can learn from our mistakes. 😉
Good luck and here’s to a lot of fabulous new photographs!