A few months ago, I bought a Nikon D40 digital SLR camera.  While most modern digital SLR cameras can be operated in a point-and-shoot mode, I have endeavored to learn how to use the camera.  I was completely unprepared for the quality and degrees of freedom that the SLR afforded me.  It has almost no shutter delay compared to my old point-and-shoot.  I can shoot in ambient light.  I still don’t know what half of the settings do.

I take a lot of pictures.  Most of them aren’t very good.  But, each one is another chance at a good one.  It is also more practice.  Thank goodness it’s digital!  I’d spend a small fortune developing the 1500-odd images I’ve taken so far.  Taking this approach to life seems somewhat Edisonian and backwards (work smarter, not harder, as the saying goes).  Try a lot of things (within reason).  One of them just might work.  If not, you’ll still learn something.

Playing pool on Monday nights has become my latest hobby, also the second hobby I owe to my office-mate, Scott. I’m learning a lot very quickly. (This is pretty easy to do since I’m making a lot of mistakes.)

One of the first things I learned is that the most important thing about any shot it is how it impacts the position of the balls on the table, not just pocketing your balls.   What if we played every move in our lives like the impacts mattered?  Does the impact matter?  For me?  For my family?  For my friends?  For my community?  For my world?

Fascinating. I still stink at pool; but, I’ve learned something for life.

Coincidentally, a few days ago, Jeff, KE9V, posted a blog on the demise of hobbies. Although, I’m not as gloomy as he is sometimes, I would tend to agree with most of his points. Hobbies are in decline among my generation and although I’m doing my best to support the statistics by having lots of them, it’s a shame. Hobbies bring people together and offer extensions of wisdom to the rest of life. I say that KE9V’s post was a coincidence because I was recently pondering the value of hobbies in my own life.

Now that I have enough photographs, the series begins. I will post a new blog every day or so, featuring a different hobby and one of the greatest lessons I’ve learned from that activity.