I gave you a sneak peek yesterday of the shutters I found. These weren't the cheapest shutters I've bought, but they are the very best (which is saying a lot.)
They are chippy, chalky and this lovely gray color.
The hardware is to die for! I snapped the pictures while they were still in my van, but I'll haul one up tomorrow to give you a proper picture of them.
You will die.
Well, if you're like me.
These are the benches I bought for the wedding. I thought they were a pretty good bargain at $35/piece.
Sorry for the picture of them on my cracked sidewalk and brown grass. They shed paint if you look at them, so there was no way I was going to bring them into my house. I'm going to hose them down, sand them a bit and then apply a clear coat of poly to seal the finish.
Fun stuff. I was giddy.
The other thing that brought joy to my heart (materially speaking) is that I just bought a wide angle lens. I've been dragging my feet on it, but last week I was shooting a tablescape for HGTV.com and I was squished back in the corner of my dining room and I still couldn't get the shot I wanted.
Here's a picture of my living room with my 28-80mm lens. It's a pretty standard lens and the one I use most. I am taking this picture from the back corner of the dining room, just to give you an idea.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)
This picture is taken with my spankin' new 10-20mm lens. I am standing in the front of my dining room with the lens at 10mm.
(Click on picture to enlarge.)
You can see the entire room, practically! It does distort the picture a bit when it's set at 10mm, but that goes away at about 12mm. I was able to take pictures of my dining room table without being squished in a corner. It was glorious!
If you're curious about my camera equipment, here's what I have:
Nikon D50 SLR camera
Nikon 28-80 lens
Nikon 70-300 lens (telephoto)
Sigma 10-20mm lens (wide angle)
If you're planning to splurge on a new lens, here's a tip. Lenses can be really expensive. This newest lens set me back $500...and that was a cheap one. Buy a protective UV filter when you buy your lens and put it on right away. It protects the lens from dust, scratches and drops. I actually dropped my camera a few months ago and was crushed to see this huge crack along the front of my lens. I was glad the camera body was OK, but it was still rough. When I started to inspect the lens, I realized it was the filter that had cracked. That $20 filter saved my lens. I simply replaced the filter and all was right in the world.
Get a filter for every lens you own.
If you want to get some good photography advice, click here to read my friend Kate's recent post about digital SLRs and here to read Donna's advice on getting the most out of a point and shoot. These posts are like gold.
