Best Birthday Present Ever

Well, Ken got me my 30th birthday present a few days early. We took advantage of the Father's Day sales and got a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera. I've been lusting over one for ages, especially since I take so many pictures of Sebastian these days. My parents chipped in too, so the present is a joint one...and so appropriately, too, because we'll all benefit from it in the end!

I love it. It is, seriously, probably the most excited about a present I've been since I was a kid. I couldn't wait to get it out of the box and snap a few pictures. Of course I was alone with the kiddo all day, so I still haven't had much of a chance to pore over the manual, but I'm amazed at how different the pictures look already, just on auto settings, from my (decent digital Elph) point-and-shoot.

I can't wait to dive into digital photography with both feet, and really figure out what I'm doing. It doesn't hurt to have such a ridiculously adorable subject. Of course I'm a tad biased, but those blue eyes get me every time. So, without further ado, here are just a few pictures I snapped today, without really knowing what I was doing. Not bad, eh?
Hooray for new toys. Double-hooray for those new toys allowing me to capture, in even more living color, the joy and wonder of seeing the world through new little eyes. Here's to years of new things to explore and document.