An affair with my SLR

I'd waited for years to buy my SLR and now I can't let go. It's bulky, not sleek, I only know 50% of the functionality and the darn lens cover keeps falling off but I cannot live without it.

I don't know why I waited that long to own one. I can't even remember when I fell in love with photography to be honest. Having grown up in a family of architects and interior designers, I had developed an eye for arty things, well most arty things anyways. But if anyone brought up conversations around sculptures at the Getty Museum or paintings at the Louvre or why Van Gogh's sunflowers was a stroke of genuis, I usually make a u-turn and run. I guess my own creations, good, bad or ugly, tend to hold my attention a lot more.

Years back, I stumbled upon a set of pictures that were nothing short of stunning. Each picture spoke volumes about the story it was narrating. I was captivated. I just knew that second that I had to discover this process
of capturing moments through lenses and making them immortal. So I enrolled myself into a photography class. 50 bucks, an annoying German instructor and a summer later, I was equipped with the basics. But one
wrong camera after another, and hubby doing a brilliant job of casually losing them in European hotel rooms, I finally decided it was time. I went through an extensive process of product comparisons and finally landed up with a Canon Rebel XT 8.0 megapixels digital SLR black beauty. Things started looking up. I finally had the ability to see, capture and crop moments with my own perspective. It brought me happiness, pride and creative satisfaction. It also fueled my imagination a lot. I was in love, again.

But greed does not spare human beings and I was no exception. As I experimented and explored more, I was subconsciously making a list of all the add-ons I wanted. Much like when you're in love and when the novelty wears off, you want the guy to propose, with a 2 carat ring, with your name engraved in it, then get married, in Rome, on a yacht, followed by a lovely honeymoon, in Tahiti, and who doesn't want three beautiful kids, and a dog, and a fully-upgraded house, with a big backyard, and a nice pool for them to play in? You get the point. So here I am, with my extensive list of add-ons... a super telefoto lens, wide lens, fisheye lens, angle finder, filters, polarizers, more memory, external flash, the list goes on. I'm not a professional photographer (I'd kill to be one but I'm not) and chances are low that I'll ever do photography for a living so no suprises here that I'm badly caught up in the confusion of how far should I take this hobby.

If only I had enough time in the day, to be good at my day job and have 3 evening jobs of my liking, my life would be purrfect!