Cameras and Things

I can neither confirm nor deny that we have recently come into a little bit of extra money.

I can also neither confirm nor deny that this supposed extra money is burning a hole in our pockets, begging to be spent.

But I can confirm that we went to the Yongsan Electronics Market this morning and walked away with this little beauty:
It's a Nikon D5100 DSLR camera. I've wanted to upgrade from our point and shoot camera for quite some time and now seemed liked the perfect time to do it. I want to capture better photos of my adorable baby before she's no longer a baby which--at the rate she's going--will be sometime next week. Plus, we're about to embark on the Malone's Rediscover America Super Awesome Roadtrip! (TM) and it seemed only right that we should have a better way to document the beauty of America.

It came down to the Nikon D5100 and the Canon Rebel T3i. They both are great cameras and very comparable in features, price, and photo quality. I went with the Nikon because I just like Nikons (having used them before) and because the Rebel series doesn't exist in Korea. I saw some that looked like the Rebel but they were called Kios. Korea is all weird like that but I'm still going to miss it a whole huge big bunch.

The salesman snapped this photo as we were buying our camera today. He was very nice and even threw in a camera bag for free.

But as David reminded me, we probably just paid his rent for the month.

I can't wait to play around with my new toy. But I should probably read the manual first. There's a lot of buttons on this thing. Also, I hope the manual is in English.

But also, if you were me right now? You'd look down and see this.....


And you'd kind love your life, just a little. That I won't even try to deny.

Welcome to the Dead Man's Party

David's birthday is only two days before mine (separated by two years) so this year I suggested that instead of buying each other individual gifts, we pool our resources and buy ourselves one big gift to be shared between the two of us. I decided that we buy a new digital camera since David didn't own one and I've had mine for over 4 years and it's rather pathetic in its picture-taking abilities. So, during the month leading up to our birthdays (which is in February, by the way) David and I visited many different stores, checking out camera after camera until we finally decided on one. It was a Fuji film camera and it looked pretty awesome. But we didn't buy it. We oscillated. And thought maybe we should wait a few months until we got married since we wouldn't be together anyway to share joint custody of the camera. When we finally decided to just go and get the camera, it was no longer available. Long story short, we never bought a new camera until last week, a mere 8 months after our birthdays. We bought a Sony Cybershot DCS-W150 because it was on clearance at the NEX for $50 cheaper than I'd seen it anywhere else and it was the camera I wanted but David would never consent to buy. A sale is always a good motivator to buy something. Especially something you've been wanting to buy for eight months.

I tested out our camera this weekend at the Dead Man's Party we attended on Halloween and I'm very pleased with the results. But any camera that can actually take a picture in anything less than perfect light is a considerable upgrade from my old camera.

In order to attend the Dead Man's Party, you had to be dead, so David and I decided to go as James and Lily Potter.

David made our robes. He made the pattern, pieced them together and sewed them up. I did my hem but still, all credit goes to David for the actual execution. I did, however, paint our wands. Just so you know I'm not useless.

The Dead Man's Party was a lot of fun. There was a pirate pineapple-o-lantern and cookies. I love cookies. I made the homemade sugar cookies on the left.

See how I contribute? And since we live in Hawaii and since the hosts couldn't find a decent pumpkin, they did the next best thing and carved a pineapple.

I couldn't get a good shot, but how awesome is this?

We bobbed for apples on a string. Which is a great deal more difficult to do than it looks like.

I was never able to get a bite out of my apple. I could have used magic, but that just didn't seem fair.

There was some dancing as David demonstrates with Caspar the Friendly Ghost. And there was some friendly banter among friends.

Watch where you're pointing that gun, Billy the Kid. That's my husband. Good thing he's got his wand out.

There was a witch hunt. And wouldn't you know, my David won?

And this silly headband was his prize. Sadly, this picture is typical David.

Can you believe I married him?

Sometimes I can't.

But I wouldn't take it back either....

Most of the time.

There was a costume contest. And this guy totally won. It wasn't even a contest.

He's the dragon Smaug from The Hobbit and he made the costume himself. Kinda makes our little black robes pathetic in comparison. We did it in two days! And neither of us has sewn in approximately 10 years.

We also played charades (which I've found is actually quite fun) and had an all-around rocking time. It's been so long since I've dressed up for Halloween and I've got to say, I can't wait to do it again. Dressing up is a ton of fun.

Especially now that I've got one awesome camera to capture all the special moments.

Even when my husband is being a nerd.

Which is all the time.

I still love him though.