Sinéad and I went on an adventure to see the tall ship in Portsmouth, NH.  The ship featured this year was the Oliver Hazard Perry, and it was quite the ship to see!  We were dreading the part of the tour that would take us below deck as the outside temperatures were teetering on the 100 degree point.  We were greatly relieved to find that the ship had air conditioning, and were discussing plans to not resurface.  

I went on a great adventure with my wife and some of her family.  We headed to Rye, NH where we hopped on a boat with Granite State Whale Watch.  It was a lot of fun!  Though it started off a bit boring, it quickly picked up when we started catching some some spouts.  From there we were right on top of tracking several whales as they surfaced.  

"Updating goal to the $500 DSLR Challenge.  If the goal of $500 is met, and the weather co-operates, I will do the hike with my DSLR and take photos of the journey.  The D5300 has GPS to plot the progress, and I've also got a battery grip that carries 2 batteries at a time to help last the day.  Challenge on!"

2 of the settings I most highly anticipated on the D5300 are the options to configure back button focusing, and to force the shot on shutter regardless of focus.  The D3100 did not have these options, and I can't begin to relate the frustration I felt from the D3100 refusing to take a shot because *it* did not think the shot was in focus.  

This past week I had a little something of a bittersweet celebration.  I shipped away the D3100 that had seen me through so much of my adventure and learning in DSLR Photography.  However, I also welcomed a highly anticipated upgrade with the D5300.  So far I have to admit that I have not been disappointed.  The camera far exceed the capabilities of the D3100.