Introducing Zaphod!

I have a proclivity for naming our possessions. Our portable dishwasher back in our old apartment was Maisie (because she was a Maytag). The beautiful yellow couch we had in our old place was Boule de Beurre (the name of the color was "butter," so I wanted to name it Butterball, but David thought it wasn't sophisticated enough, so I promptly "translated" it into French). Our little red Prius is Rosie (red car, no-brainer there). The voice of our navigation system is Hildegard (just because).

So now, introducing the newest item in the Keddie household to fall prey to my love for anthropomorphism -- Zaphod!

Our beautiful new camera arrived in the mail today! We've been thinking about taking the plunge into the world of dSLR photography for a while now, and after lots of research and talking to photographer friends, we decided to go with the Canon Rebel XSi. I was all set to name it Maude (I get a kick out of old-fashioned names), but David joined in the naming fun and lobbied for Zaphod. And really, that name works better for such a modern piece of technology -- especially since Zaphod the dSLR has multiple lenses. Just like Zaphod Beeblebrox had multiple heads. Get it? Huh?

Ahem. Zaphod also takes beautiful pictures! The one above of David was actually taken in our dark bathroom, in the mirror, using the external flash and the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 kit lens. We've had a lot of fun playing around with the kit lens, and the well-reviewed, not terribly expensive 50mm f/1.8 lens we bought specifically for portraits and lower light photography. Check out the first efforts of the budding photographers Keddie!

See? Bathroom mirror shot!


My joy upon coming home and seeing our camera had arrived.


Look at how sharp this picture is! Swoon!


Look! Only the wedding candles are in sharp focus!
(And oof, I need to dust more regularly...)


Text image quality!


The perfect portrait shot -- shallow depth of field, and a beautiful subject. :)


A cool shot of our china cabinet

We're super excited. We've both been wanting to take better pictures chronicling our lives, and this is definitely a good first step! More photos to come...