My shopping list has just changed a bit...

Anybody who follows Nikon gear rumors and releases already knows the camera above, but for anybody who has been under a rock the last several weeks, Nikon has announced the D700, a new camera combining the full-frame sensor of the D3 with the smaller, lighter form of the D300. DP Review has a hands-on preview here, and all the major camera sites have copies of Nikon's release. This is the camera I (and many others) have been waiting for, and they're supposed to be available by late July. I'll be placing my order in a few weeks.

But wait! I thought you had no job! Why are you looking at new cameras? How is this possible?

Read on...


Over the course of several weeks of separation from the corporate, clock-punching, every day the same job I've held for the last six years, I've had time to do some serious thinking and planning. I've realized several things, and probably the most pertinent is that I do not want to work for anybody else.

I asked my wife a few days ago if she felt I was good with commitment. I asked her what my success rate is when I'm fully on board with something, really jumping in with both feet.

She says 100%

I've known this for years, but now my hand has been forced, and I choose the path less trodden. It's not the easy road, but it's been my passion, my dream, and now I have the chance to make the decision.

I'm not going back to work.

Cycle 61 Photography is going full-time, right now. I'm cashing in some resources that I've saved up over the last few years, and making this thing real. The resources exist, and will be liquid in a few weeks, to fill in the gaps in a functional professional set of gear, to finish my licensing, to put together some advertising, and to support us while the ball really gets rolling with the business.

I have a tentative agreement with a dance school to shoot their events, a wedding in August, one in October, and a few others in the early stages. Certainly not a full-time schedule as yet, but it's a start.

I have a job interview tomorrow morning for yet another maintenance technician job at a pharmaceutical company. I'm still going to go, but it's probably going to be my last. I've officially been hired as President, CEO, and head photographer here at Cycle 61.