I just recently bought myself the canon 50mm 1/.4 lens and... I think my life can never be the same. I'll never use my 1.8 again. I don't even want to use the kit lens ever again. It is so clean and crisp. I felt like a little kid when I clicked the 'confirm purchase' button on ebay. Last year I used my whole tax return for school, this year I decided to treat myself. I also got a new battery and car charger for it which I'm super excited about. For maybe... a year (eek) the battery has been completely drained so on a 'full charge' it works for an hour max. You can imagine how annoying that is. It made me bummed and not want to take pictures at all. For some reason I thought that batteries were super expensive but I found my new kit for under $20.

I dragged (not really) Rick out to the snow with me so I could try it out, and it did not disappoint. I've taken some pictures of the puppies with it but haven't ventured outdoors. I wanted to take some smoking-a-wood-pipe-in-the-woods photos but we ended up snapping only a couple of shots because it was freezing, and we hadn't intended on traveling into Tahoe. I was in a light sweater and he had boat shoes on. I was imagining myself hiking and doing a lot more... rigorous activity, but with Monday being a holiday, everybody and their Uncle Bob was out in the snow. I don't like being around crowds of people and they love to gawk at you when you take pictures like you're some kind of sideshow freak, so we kept driving around to the south side of Tahoe.













That last one is super grainy, but I just love him.

xo

These photos came out a little grainy/out of focus. I dropped my 50mm lens that I've had for years and now it won't auto focus for me, so I have to manually focus everything and when I turn it a certain way, it gets 'stuck' and I have to almost force it to turn. I bought it for $50 off of Amazon a couple of years ago but for some reason I can't seem to find one for under $90. It's one of those things that you don't really want to drop a hundred bucks on, especially before Christmas, so I've put off replacing it and have just dealt with it's issue. Rick tries his best for outfit photos (although theres a slight grumble sometimes:) ) but I think with the combination of it being dusk & my poor lens not working properly I'll have to redo the outfit I wore. I wasn't totally in love with it either so maybe thats a good thing :)







The last four are from my phone, overall we didnt take very many pictures. I was hoping to go back soon, hopefully before Halloween, since it's currently snowing and I think snowy cemetery pictures would be 1000x cooler. Virgina City is a sleepy little town once you get away from the main street. I had been there when I was a kid and only remembered once I saw it again earlier this year. Rick took me when we were seeing each other, before I moved here. It has it's charms but on this particular day there were all sorts of people out and about for pre-halloween 'festivities'. I'd love to have a drink and mill around the town, but most people were hovering in and outside of the casino and I do not do casinos, at all. There's nothing appealing to me about losing my hard earned money and being surrounded by loud, drunk people. I went to Vegas for the first time in January and my anxiety skyrocketed. I know not everybody who goes to Vegas is going to get absolutely trashed, I had a couple of drinks myself, but I know my limit plus I have a fairly high tolerance to it. Anybody who took me out for my birthday can verify that it took quite a few drinks for me to get buzzed. And once it gets past the warm fuzzy feeling, it's not much fun for me anyway. I hate everything that city had to offer and couldn't wait to get away from the noise and people stumbling into me. The lights, noise, people, aura... just aren't for me. Reno is much quieter and the parties stay in the casinos, for the most part. I'm not particularly fond of this town either, but it has it's perks. I've only been in one of the casinos and couldn't seem to find entertainment in the 18 year olds dancing for old men, or the stomach for the smells coming from further inside. It just seems so juvenile to be 30 and completely wasted when there's so many cooler things you could be doing. Maybe I'm an old maid before my time, but I went clubbing when I was younger and got as close to drunk as my wallet could afford and those days are long over. I walk into the casinos and it's like nobody grew up. Maybe I'm just partial to the days my sisters and I would grab drinks at The Goodfoot in Portland, and dance to James Brown and Queen. Either way, it's hard to be invited to events that are centered around drinking and tons of people and have to find a nicer way to tell your friends you're just not interested. It sounds like I'm a prude, but honestly, it's not healthy. I don't have a lot of extra money to spend, so spending it on a couple of beers and a cool show in an intimate venue is way more appealing to me. Unfortunately cool shows here are few and far between so my options are limited. Rick and I had a date when we first started going out at one of the casinos in Tahoe, but it was pretty small and it was nice to people watch, have a beer, and enjoy the band. That memory is much fonder to me than any time we've spent in one of the larger casinos. Even when I was in Vegas, I much rather enjoyed sitting in the quieter, darker part of the floor with my aunt and drinking wine. Maybe it's just testament to the fact that I enjoy simpler things and am a huge hermit!