Arngaladh

I'm running low on inspiration. I've scoured Google for projects or challenges to get me going again, but I can't seem to find many decent ones. The only ones that I'm seeing all over the place are the 365 Project and the 52 Project. These seem fun, and I will do them sometime, but they're still very open. I was looking for something more specific and tailored. If anybody knows of any websites or challenges/projects (or even just make one up for me!), don't hesitate to tell me. It would be very much appreciated!

As you may or may not know, the Panasonic DMC-FZ8 I used to use had impeccable timing and decided to break right before a two week holiday to France. That was in July/August. To repair it would've cost almost as much as the camera cost in the first place. You can't blame it though. It had been put through three years of good use, and it was pretty solid as far as cameras go. I once managed to drop it from the top of one of those kiddy climbing frames you get in the park, onto tarmac. Oops!

However, I was pretty upset when it broke. I had been saving up all year for this holiday to France with my boyfriend. Not only was it my first holiday to France, and my first holiday with my boyfriend, it was also my first holiday outside of the UK at all. Now I had no camera to capture it all with. I had saved almost £200, but I couldn't bear to go without a camera. Understanding that I couldn't go and buy another bridge camera (because I would have no money for two weeks in France), I set a budget of £70 maximum, and tried to find a decent compact camera. It's a little red 12 megapixel Hitachi camera. Good, but not something I'd try and do serious photography. It was great for a my touristy shots, and I now have a small camera I can take to parties and social occasions. But it still sucked a lot, not having a bridge camera. Especially as my boyfriend was bought a bridge camera right before we went! He got a Nikon L110. A good camera.

When I got back home, for the following six months, I used my father's 10.2 megapixel Canon EOS 400D camera. It's a DSLR, and I don't really want one of them yet. But it is a very nice camera. It did suck that I wasn't able to use it whenever I wanted, like my own camera, but I did get quite a lot of time with it. So this sharing of a camera sustained me. However, it was my birthday yesterday. My 17th birthday. And my parents bought me a really, really great camera. It's a 14 megapixel Olympus SP-800UZ. 30x optical zoom and a wide angle lens. It's actually amazing. I mean, I've zoomed right in on the pictures after uploading them to my laptop, and the quality is outstanding! There are so many great features on it too. My dad found a fisheye setting and we were laughing so, so hard. I'm really pleased with it. I'm very much looking forward to going to my boyfriend's in a week. We both have bridge cameras now. Should be good! I really can't wait!