Day: November 30, 2003

Have you ever been sitting around, unable to sleep late at night, and gotten the Bad Feeling in the pit of your stomach? You know the feeling. Somewhere in between the freaky kid in the corner is staring at me and the teacher just saw me throw that spitball. I turned down the music and heard an absolutely frightening chattering. And meowing. And the occasional scrape and flutter. And meowing. Then silence. Silence is never a Good Thing!

I wandered out of the computer room only to be immediately buzzed by a bat! Three kitties were tracking its every movement, and it was circling at the top of the stairs! I called Kelly in with a strange incoherent babble that showed obvious distress and confusion over exactly how to vocalize what I was experiencing. We both stared in amazement for a few minutes before I realized that I happened to be holding my Canon EOS Rebel Xs.

Unfortunately, I had the Quantary telephoto which was way too slow for the conditions. I ran downstairs, grabbed the Elph, and started shooting stills and video! After the little guy started to tire out and got close enough to the floor for Willow to smack down, I remembered Kelly’s pond net sitting outside, grabbed it, and went all Steve Irwin! I utilized the genuine Croc Hunter Net Flop technique to safeguard our little friend in an impromptu pocket, transferred him to a fishtank, then brought him outside to his freedom!

I just placed an order for a Canon EOS Digital Rebel for the outstanding price of $650 (regularly $899). Thank you American Express Membership Rewards! I couldn’t justify the Canon EOS 10D because its feature set was complete overkill for what I’ll be shooting, but the Digital Rebel uses the same 6.3 MP CMOS for a resolution of 3072 x 2048 pixels! Not only that, but I already own a Canon EOS Rebel Xs and Speedlite 380EX with Canon EF 35-80mm and Quantaray Tech-10 CN AF 70-300mm lenses that are fully compatible with the Digital Rebel!

Why the sudden digital photography kick? I’m finally pulling in a steady trickle of cash from my affiliate accounts, and have found a way into the stock photography scene, so I can finally justify the purchase price! Also, with high-resolution gear, the wife and I may get back into risque photography and start working with models in the New England area looking for portfolio development. I also have a complete revamp of all of my Web sites planned using Mambo Open Source Server with Google optimization, so that will add quite a few new opportunities for affiliate income!