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Photographic Wine
Hobbies are wonderful things for people who hate money. Photography is a really good hobby in this way, because it can suck money off in any amount you can dish it out. Right now, my current allotment of equipment that I use for our pictures has run about…*cocks heads*…*counts on fingers*…$600. And it is, by any standard for photographers, a shoestring setup. For instance, this week’s HNT was shot through the cheapest lens I can buy for my camera (which costs an are-you-serious $80) , with a white sheet stapled (yes, stapled) to the ceiling, and a bunch of lamps behind it. At the same time, I love doing it. I love having an idea, and finding a way to show Mina the way I see her. In a bigger way, this is something I would really enjoy being to able do with more people, to explore this concept. In all honestly, I would love to be able to have a buisness doing this sort of boudoir, intimate photography.
However…I think there is a limit to how many people want to come to our little house and stand in front of a sheet stapled to the ceiling. Well, if not my house, I feel safe thinking even fewer people have as little care for the ceilings in their home as I have for the ceiling in mine. Then there is the matter of pulling out a Home Depot-purchased gooseneck lamp, aluminum foil, and a roll of scotch tape as I set up for the colored background. A backdrop frame would be around $80-$100, plus the backdrops. It would be good to get a set of strobes and maybe a footlight, so that would be another $200 or so to get going, and another $80-100 for a softbox. Plus, I’d like to get wider-angle lens, but it needs to be fast (I normally shoot around f/1.8-f/3.0) so, it would cost around $300. Long-term, it would be really good to get a more serious camera body, which would be close to $1000. Don’t forget, this is all shopping in the bargain bins. Times like this I consider the advice of the immortal Mister Miyagi:
I am not one to be squished like a grape…so there’s a decision to be made.
Today, it’s photography “no do.” Maybe next year. Till then, Mina and I will keep having fun, and maybe some friends who find theirselves in our path, or here in the City of Angels will pop up. But for now, it’s time to keep it where it belongs.