I'm trying to stop being so flash happy, as I know that natural light will make my subject look a lot better, so, I took some pics today of the Caprese salads on a stick I made for my brother's birthday and though I think the pics came out ok, I'm craving more, this Sony CyberShot is not going to get me any further, I am considering upgrading to a digital SLR, I'm trying to find a photography class in my area, but it seems like there's no one in my area holding beginner's photog. classes, which seems strange as I live in a rather large city, but anyway, to stop boring you with that... I've been looking into prices for DSLR's and they are quite pricey, but, I've found a Sony A200, which has pretty decent stats and is only $500 and it includes a middle of the road lens, which would be good to get me started, I figure that (obviously) I'd be investing $500 to start with and hopefully I'd be able to keep said camera around for a while and build up my skill.

My dad is by no means a photographer (he can barely take a picture without his finger in front of the lens) but he has a fairly nice Nikon which though is a few years old, still takes some lovely photos like the one below and he paid about $500 Correction: $700! for that a few years ago, so, these days, I can get much better quality for the same coin, just another advantage to newer technology coming out every day.
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Though this may sound contradictory seeing as though this post is about my desire to upgrade my equipment, I like to think that the ability to put beauty like that into photo form is not about the camera or about me, it's more about the fact that it's simply too beautiful to not turn out great and look at the fantastic lighting, where the shadows fall, that was a beautiful day and looking at this picture just reminds me of that and makes me happy, so, isn't that what it's about, looking at a picture and smiling, feeling for just one moment that through all the ugly, beauty still exists?

