the first photo

It is Wednesday night. The kids are asleep. The dishes are done. The trash is out. It is still raining. I am sitting on my living room floor with Maverick, in the dim lamp light, surrounded by boxes and packing bubbles, with the contents of today’s UPS delivery in my lap.
My new camera.
I have successfully charged and loaded the battery, inserted and formatted the flash card, and located the On button. I manage to identify the exposure, auto-focus, image quality and many other settings. (Although, I have yet to locate the no-fail, perfect shot every time setting...still searching the manual for that one.)
Now if only I could bring myself to press the shutter release button.
This should not be a big deal, I think, why does this moment feel like a big deal?
Should the first photo taken with my new camera be something special and memorable?
My kids? A beautiful flower? A perfect sunset?
Like I said -it’s late, dark, rainy and past bed-time….There you have it folks. My lazy dog.
With this first photo, the burden is lifted. I am free to take all the boring, blurry, dark and otherwise bad photos that I can, because the more I take the more shining gems I know will begin to appear among them. I am looking forward to studying and learning and practicing with this camera, and I hope you enjoy seeing my progress as I share it with you along the way.
This should be fun -and beautiful.
You'll see.
If only it would stop raining...