My new camera!

When we moved J (my partner) and I thought we would make some general changes, and one was not to have a TV in the bedroom anymore - mainly because we tended to watch absolute rubbish and then end up tired the next day. In fact since we've moved we all watch a lot less TV generally and it's amazing how much more time I have available to do something more interesting instead. Don't get me wrong we still like to slob in front of it inanely when the fancy takes us.

One of my new interests, besides blogging, is photography. I've always enjoyed it but living in Pembrokeshire now there are so many beautiful photos waiting to be taken, its whetted my appetite again.

I bought my first digital camera when my daughter (G8) was nearly one. It's strange to think that she has never gone to Boots and waited with fevered anticipation to collect photographs, and has no idea what a roll of film really is. Technology evolves quickly - which also means my 7 year old camera is positively archaic. My Canon Ixus has taken some good photos in its time (all the Pembrokeshire photos in the slideshow top right), but is now quite slow. I have to ask people to pose for 10 seconds while it warms up, in that time they generally wonder off - time for a new one me thinks. G8 is delighted as she is in line for the old one.

I thought about buying a DSLR, but for me because of their bulk I don't think I'd end up carrying it around with me very much - then not having a camera to hand makes it difficult to take pictures! I've gone for a bit of a hybrid - the Canon G11. It's basically still a point and shoot compact camera and I can take it anywhere, but it does have a full manual mode and you can buy accessories including fancy pants lenses etc (this might be a bit advanced for me at this point). Hopefully the camera will make me feel like a real photographer, even if I'm not.

I'm still a bit of an ignoramus when it comes to the manual mode, but it'll be another new learning curve and something for me to do when I'm not watching TV! Everybody say CHEESE :)