Happy birthday to me!

I turned 40 this year. I know, crazy. My birthday was on a Sunday, and it was a lovely, relaxing day.

It was nice and warm, so we ate dinner outside. My mom brought us dinner - pizza chicken, my favorite birthday dinner growing up.

I love this classic laughing mom picture. Her laugh is contagious!

Dave made this scrumptious hot fudge pudding cake. The candles were melting quickly!

Dave worked hard to make it a special day for me. Sundays are very busy for him with meetings before, during and after church as the bishop of our ward. But he made me delicious food, did all the dishes, and organized the kids to clean. I looked at this picture the other day and just had to send him a text telling him how much I love him! 

For a combined birthday/mother's day gift, I requested a new camera. My old camera was having some issues, and I wanted a newer model. It's my first FX (full frame) camera, Nikon D750, and I love it!!

It's a pricey camera, but between trading in my old camera and two lenses, and buying a used camera, we were able to afford it. Here are a few samples.

It's especially good at indoor/low light pictures. The colors and lighting are very natural. I can increase the ISO really high without being grainy.

 A lovely close-up of my blister after I burned my finger making potato soup. Ouch.

 I love how clear it is - you can see Brennan's cute freckles.

And Levi's cute freckles.

Here's Chloe, working on writing her name.

The camera body was so pricey that I just bought an inexpensive lens to go with it (as opposed to the $1000 lens that it's usually sold with). Mine is considered a mid-range zoom, and this is its widest angle. I've been using prime (i.e. non-zoom) lenses for so long that's I've enjoyed having a little zoom again.

Although the feel of the camera is very similar to my old one (they're both Nikons), I'm still getting used to all the settings. It's been fun!

Moonstone Beach in Cambria

I didn't have anyone in the car with me this day, so I pulled over to take pictures on the top of 46. There's Morro Rock in the distance.

And there is Morro Rock, zoomed in and cropped a tad. The problem with photography is that once you get a new lens, you want another one. Lenses are addicting! But I will have to wait awhile before I get the 300mm zoom I want. The really cool thing about FX cameras is that pretty much every lens ever made by Nikon will work for it, even old non-digital, 35mm camera ones. When they started making digital cameras, they made them DX, which were cropped because they had small sensors, and the old lenses didn't work on them. Now they also make FX cameras, and they have the same size sensor as their 35mm film cameras. For example, this lens I got isn't even made anymore, but there are so many old ones around that they only cost around $50 used. Everything I know about photography equipment I learned from Ken Rockwell. I read everything I could on his site for about a week straight before I settled on a camera and lens. I'm very happy with them!