My New Camera

What I really wanted for Christmas this year was a new camera. I had been using Dan’s dad’s for the past few years and it has been a very nice digital camera (my first, I believe). But for the past couple of years it has had two spots on the inside of the lens that has been messing up my shots. Since I like to try to get some of my photos published, this has been an issue with me. Some of my best shots have been messed up by these two little dots. If I have a lot of color in my shots, you can’t tell that they are there, but if I do a sky shot or a sand shot (many taken in New Mexico), you can tell.

Well I told people for Christmas I was collecting money to get a new camera. I knew what I wanted and it would be $350. I thought I would have to hold the money and get more money next year in order to get the camera, but when I went to eBay, I found a new opened box one for $148 and now it is mine. So the money had already begun to save and the money Dan’s mom and my parents gave me was enough to buy me my new camera.

I was using an Olympus Camedia C-3040Zoom with 3.3 megapixels. It had a 3x optical zoom and a 2.5x digital zoom. This nice camera also had f1.8 super bright zoom lens. This thing shot well and it was a lot brighter than the one I have now. In fact I would take pictures at a football game from the stance while Dan took shots from the sidelines and mine where brighter than his.

My new one is the same as the first nice camera Dan used while working at the Pender Post. The first one he had wasn’t very good so he did some research and the newspaper bought him a different one to use while he was there. The paper paid around $350 for theirs and I was very excited to pay only $148 for mine. Dan and I loved to use this camera as it had a wonderful zoom and it had a micro. After awhile, the paper got Dan an even fancier camera to use, and the little Minolta went to the next reporter. I did offer to buy theirs from them, but they wanted a little point and shot in the office for other reporters.

So yes, my new camera is a Minolta. It is a Konica Minolta Dimage Z3 in fact. It has 4.0 megapixels and 12x optical zoom.

Recently we have gone to the Moores Creek Battle Field and NC Aquarium. We have had a Young People’s Game night at our house and a teen activity. And believe it or not we have even a snow fall. So I have been playing with my new camera.

Sandlapper's Nice Rejection

Awhile ago, I told you about Sandlapper’s nice rejection letter. Well, here it is;

[begin quote]
Dear Joy:

Elaine Gillespie, Sandlapper’s design consultant, really liked your photos (particularly the albino peacock) and would like to encourage you to submit more for future consideration. As I may have said previously, Ms. Gillespie and Bob Wilkins, Sandlapper’s editor emeritus, are interested in showing more action on our covers and endpapers, so if you have any vertical of people working and playing in South Carolina, send them on. (We get our share of lighthouses, waterfalls, shorebirds, wildflowers, and beach sunsets.)

{Here she placed the deadlines for photos.}

We look forward to seeing more of your work, and appreciate your interest in us. Happy New Year!

Sincerely,
Adia Rogers
[end quote]

Then at the end of the letter she had wrote:

[begin quote]
P.S. Your package was damaged when it arrived – I think it got wet somehow – but we were able to access the CD.
[end quote]

See, I told you it was a very nice rejection and this is from a whole lot bigger magazine than Haruah. Ms. Rogers and I did quite a bit of corresponding back and forth before I got my photos sent in and I don’t recall her saying anything about action shots of people. Right now the computer that has these shots is crashed; but I don’t think I have what she is looking for.

I guess I’ll have to take another trip down to South Carolina. ;-)

Rejected by Sandlapper - though very positive

Though it took awhile, I did finally hear back from Sandlapper. I guess my package with my photos and CD got wet and damaged in the mail, but they were able to open the CD to look at the photos.

Though they did not accept my shots, they did send a VERY positive rejection letter and asked me to send in more photos (if I have any action shots of people in SC).

I’ll have to bring the letter here to church, since I don’t have internet at the house, and type out what it says another day.

I never did hear from NM Magazine, so I’m guessing that is a no.

I did get a start on the photos I want to send to Our State Magazine, but the computer with those shots crashed and we haven’t been able to get it up yet.

I also have another South Carolina magazine that was interested in looking at my pictures if Sandlapper didn’t accept them, but once again those are on the crashed computer.