I'm not habit of spending lots of money all the time on photography stuff (we have two children so disposable income is often nothing more than a pipe dream). But from time to time I manage to have a little splurge. This week was one of those (rare) weeks. And today was one of those even rarer days where two things arrive on the same day, one obviously photohgraphy related, one less so (yet something I've come to realise I really needed - you know, as much as you need 'stuff').
Just before we went away to Spain (and I thought I'd blogged about this but it seems not!), I bought some Cokin gradual nd filters and a filter system. I had some money burning in my pocket from my birthday and, after chatting to the folks in my local camera shop, decided that that money was best invested in a filter system. Money burnt, I excitedly packed them for our trip to Spain, looking forward to trialling them out. One thing I recognised early on is that the packaging wasn't great for protecting the filters. Each filter was in a plastic sleeve, but the box it came in wasn't the most secure. So I decided to stump up for a proper carry case for them, which fortunately Cokin also make. At least now the filters should be kept in good shape and hopefully won't get damaged when out and about.
The other thing I stumped up for was something I never thought I'd be getting with photography in mind: hiking boots. I've been spending most of my time concentrating on landscape photography this past year and it became clear last winter that I didn't really have the footwear for traipsing around the country in the snow and mud. So it seemed that, as summer makes its way out the door (can't believe I am writing that in August), it maybe might be a good idea to invest in some proper boots.
I'm particularly pleased with the ones I got as they also seem to be perfect for the snow. Although down in the south east we don't tend to get too much snow, my little corner is pretty high up and can get hit fairly bad when the snow does hit (we've had several occasions where driving was out of the question). So these boots should be perfect. And better than trying to stomp through the snow with a trainers on.
That's probably my lot for a while (although I have my eye on a big stopper for my Cokin system), right now I'm mainly looking forward to autumn colours and great sunsets. Not long to go now... (must stop wishing the summer away!)