An Afternoon at the Coffee House

Are you one of those people who buys a bookshelf that needs assembly, and throws away the directions, thinking you can figure it out yourself? Same thing with the owner's manual for that new DVR or camcorder? I hate reading--or trying to read--owner's manuals for electronics. When I bought my new Nikon D700 last fall, I read the first 5 pages of the 444 page manual. Then gave up. A good friend and colleague of mine didn't fare much better when she bought the same camera a few weeks ago.

We met for lunch today at Red Tree Coffee House, and brought our cameras and manuals. After a very yummy lunch (I had Black Forest Ham and Cheddar, melted on an Everything Bagel) and some of Amy's delicious homemade Ginger Snaps, we played with our cameras. We tried out new settings and setting combinations to see what we got--and found some definite improvements! These cameras are such an incredible upgrade from the Fuji S2's and S3's we were both shooting before--but there's a huge learning curve with them, too.

Here are some of our "test shots" from this afternoon. Isn't this pottery beautiful? A local artisan makes it and displays it here. He's also a fantastic chef, and does a special private party Italian dinner at the coffee house every month. We went last time, and it was delicious!