one thing became clear

last weekend. . . and that is, I really need a new camera. I am almost completely convinced my photos would be amazing IF ONLY I had a good camera. One that took really good pictures just because it instinctively knew how to.

I don't want to read the manual. But I will. From cover to cover. Because I'm nerdy like that. . . and then I'll read the french instructions (out loud) because I need to justify those four painful semesters of french somehow. And if I'm on a roll I might also read the spanish instructions (also out loud) because I like to try and impress Jimmy with my amazing linguistic skills. Unfortunately he's known me too long and now realizes I really don't understand a word I'm saying, only that I'm good at faking an accent.

I so wanted to capture this sweet moment in all it's glorious simplicity like all of you awesome blogging photographers do. But my camera STINKS. I will not take any blame. It's old. It's been dropped on numerous occasions. It has at least a two second delay from the time you press the button, to the moment the picture is actually taken. (Do you know how much living takes place over two seconds in the life of 1.5 year old? It is equivalent to three months in grown-up years.)

And just forget about taking another picture immediately after, because that will not happen for at least another seven seconds. By then the moment is so, so far gone . . . and so is everyone else. And I am left muttering to myself, cursing the camera and maybe dropping it one more time.

So here's a desperate plea (we are buying next week) so give it quick: please share any camera knowledge with me. This is a hobby that both Jimmy and I would like to pursue so we'd really like to get a good one. I honestly have no inkling of who manufactures a good camera.

Just for the record, I attempted learning about photography once through one of those community classes, and after five weeks the only thing I could tell you was that a camera had something called an f stop. Please don't ask me what it does for I do not know.