My smile and excitement is truly genuine. "Why?" you ask? Well I'll tell you! I was feeling a bit down that I was going on my second month of no-real-photography-job-since-graduating, so when I came home from Alabama, I went to work on contacting people. I applied to Starbucks because I figured if I started as a Barista, I could work my way up into food photography, and I got a tip that a local paper, the St. Charles Examiner, was looking for photographers. I had two interviews today. All I have to say: WOOT! I was at my Examiner interview for two hours, and got hired! It's like The Tiger on crack, it's a weekly, but with way more photos and online galleries. I'll send links. At the Starbuck's interview, the manager and I got along so well, that later she called me back telling me how excited she was to have me on the Starbuck's team. NOT ONLY THAT, but one thing the guy from the Examiner said was that my lenses weren't really fast enough for some of the sports that they shoot, so I might be limited by my equipment. BOO YA! I applied for a Citibank credit card that gives me airmiles, and I got accepted! AND I just paid off my other credit card, so I have no debt!! SO I'm going to use the new card to BUY A NEW LENS!!!! (AND GET AIRMILES FOR IT!! YAYAYAYA!!!) So I'm a little excited. On the downside, bartending was awful tonight. Just awful. But since I'm an official photographer now, I'm not going to be there much longer. YAYA! Sorry for the long commentary. Originally I was going to get my tripod and do a "jumping for joy" shot, but I had to get to work, so it had to be a quickie.

Starting to get used to the way this camera works. Of course it is not a Leica and it is easy to understand why these designs folded (geddit) and gave way to more cumbersome but faster handling designs - fixed lenses, 35mm, coupled rangefinders, and later on, SLRs. The routine is: 1 Transfer empty spool to take up side, a flat surface is good for this 2 Load the new roll of film 3 Wind on the film using the markings on the film backing paper as a guide 4 Make sure you apply tension with your third thumb to the new spool edge to ensure the film winds onto the take up spool tightly 5 Close the back and using the red window wind on to the first frame 6 Close the red window shutter 7 Cock shutter 8 Adjust speed and aperture settings 9 Focus using the ragefinder 10 transfer rangefinder setting to the lens focussing ring 11 Compose your masterpiece 12 Take the picture Go back to 6 and start again