As a late graduation gift, I got a fancy new camera from my mom. I wasn’t neglected or anything. The gift has been in the works since graduation, but we’ve had a hard time locating the right camera. I’ve spent some time here and there assembling the thing, figuring out all of the parts, charging the battery, and so forth.After a snow storm and a few frozen mornings, we’re having another late, warm spell. Any time the temperature gets above 70, I take a run in the park and then sit or lay on a bench on on the grass and absorb the vitamin D. I have to stock up for winter. As an aside, I also realized after my last post that I cannot possibly write a novel during any of the summer months because as long as it is warm, I have to outside for a certain portion of the way. Being inside writing a novel throughout the month of June would never work for me. I’ll have to figure out another plan.So anyway, the weather was nice, and I had a burst of energy today, which is one of my non-workout days. I ran a few laps at the park and then sprawled out on a park bench. A young couple were laying on a blanket. The girl was eating crackers. The guy was on his back looking at the sky. They say that the sky in the Southwest is good for artists because somehow the light here is amazing. New Mexico is mostly known for this phenomenon, but I’ve noticed that on a clear day, Utah is incredibly bright. Today was one of those days. I think because of the weather event on the East coast, which has shut down a lot of air travel, there wasn’t a cloud, contrail, or chemtrail in the sky today. The sky was bright, deep blue–the kind of color and depth that is impossible to describe or capture on film. That didn’t stop me from trying.

I took the opportunity to experiment with my new camera. I’m not sure what to think of it yet. I got a few good pictures, but I took several that were really quite bad. The color was bland. I guess I thought that a camera of this caliber would work miracles and that it would be impossible to take a bad picture. That doesn’t seem to be the case. The quality is supposed to be a million times better than my old Kodak, but I can’t see a huge difference yet. Maybe that’s not fair. I can see that the photos are better or could be better. I think the potential is there. The real test is when I take photos of my nephew over the holidays. If I can capture some good photos of his cute little face, I’ll be happy.

The colors are beautiful, no doubt.