Complex electronic devices easily overwhelm me.

I got my new camera today...and so far I love it! As I was bringing it home this afternoon, I told myself that this time instead of figuring out how to use it on my own and being frustrated at the fact that I didn't know how to make it do what I wanted it to, I'd read the instruction manual and do it "the right way". I told myself that it should be easy to sift through the mere TWO HUNDRED SEVENTY-EIGHT PAGES of information contained in the manual and pick out the things I wanted to learn. I told myself that this would be nooooooooooooo problem.

Yeah.

I've realized I tell myself a lot of things...like, "It's okay to pay more and get less...you're supporting (insert name of local business I bought my first camera from here)." Or, silly things like, "The manual is your friend...really, it'll be different this time...just go ahead and read it!" :)

I feel good about supporting local businesses but I also feel good about supporting my bank account...so, when I found out that the company I purchased my first camera from couldn't give me the D90 for the price I'd seen online at Walmart (gotta love Walmart for keeping their prices low...especially for a circumstance such as this), I decided to go with another local business that would. I still feel kind of like an adulteress, but I'll get over it. :)

Now as far as the manual, I've opened it twice since I brought the camera home, mostly just to see (hoping against hope, really) if it happened to be a cross between a Magic 8 Ball and a flip book that would know what I didn't know and simply show me how to do it...or if, for the amount of money I paid for the camera, I'd also purchased a human being that could explain to me what I wanted to know. So far, it's no dice on either of those. A lot is the same with this camera and the old one, so I've been able to set it up a little bit, which is encouraging. There's just A LOT more that this camera is able to do...so I should probably find someone that can teach me some of those things because I've always been a hands-on learner. I'm really not great at learning to do something out of a book because I don't think I do a great job at gleaning the information that will be most valuable and helpful...it's just not one of my strong points and that's okay. I know I'll find out what I need to know about the camera as I go along and I'm excited to have a camera that I can really grow into! I have a feeling I'm going to have it for a long time and still not know everything about it and that's awesome.

Here's to a lifetime (and most definitely a few months are scheduled right into my immediate future) of learning new things!

XO