*UPDATED* (see below)

In case you noticed my recent outburst of creativity, there's yet another reason for it, following my recent PC upgrade: I have now equipped my new PC with several new peripherals, namely a really good mouse (Logitech MX-400), a Spyder 3 Pro Color calibrating sensor and a Wacom Bamboo tablet!

Using the Spyder 3, I have adjusted my screen and videocard to finally have a true, pristine picture with truly natural colors. Boy, did my eyes fail me before! It really makes a -huge- difference. In hindsight, photo editing didn't make much sense until now. Several pictures I edited before looked -really- crappy on other displays.
Nice side-effect: The picture is much easier on the eyes too.
I've also added a second lamp to my desk, illuminating the area behind the screen with a "daylight" (6500 Kelvin) energy saving lamp, thus reducing contrast between screen and surrounding - especially in the evening. I think my eyes will soon thank me for these measures.

Replacing my old, wireless mouse (having a crappy, dust-bunny attracting optical sensor) with the new wired(!) laser-sensor mouse made a lot of sense too. A wireless mouse might be comfortable at first sight, but when moving the mouse pointer very slowly over tiny distances, some wireless mice tend to be jumpy and inaccurate. My old rodent also had a habit of making the pointer creep around uncontrollably even when not touching it. Very annoying.

Best addition to my desktop though is the Wacom Bamboo tablet!
Photo editing has never been more fun and more effective than with this awesome input device! It's very accurate, has a natural feel to it (just like using pen and paper) and the pressure sensitive tip really rocks! UBER-AWESOME!

With all these great news, there's only one drawback... that's basically it in terms of Christmas for me this year

PS: Ok, I'm officially spoilt now!
I got some cash for Christmas from my grandma and I decided to throw out my ancient Deskjet 970 printer too and replace it with a Canon iP4600 printer. I spent the evening fiddling with settings in Photoshop Elements and the printer driver to get the best possible quality and "wasted" a few sheets of expensive 4x6" photo paper and precious ink but the final results are amazing.
So there, I've basically replaced my *entire* technical equipment in a little over a year. Now what?

...*Boredom ensues*



Well, what can you do to fight off boredom?

...right: Get NEW equipment!

Update 04/23/2009:

I've just gotten my hands on an update for Photoshop Elements to Version 7 and (that's the real cool toy for an "oldtimer" like me) I got a 2nd hand 35mm film scanner! Now I can finally digitize all my old 35mm SLR negative film strips! (Well, the good pictures at least)
Even though the scanner ist almost 9 years old, it's got an amazing scan quality. It probably can't compete with my new Alpha 700 pictures but it would be a shame to let the pictures go to waste.
Now I just have to sort through my countless bags of miscelleneous photos that I never found the time (or discipline) for getting them organized. Some date back to roundabout 1992. Gee whizz...

Update 06/13/2009:

I got dibs on a Minolta AF 500/8 Reflex tele lens. It arrived today. It's a very compact, strong tele lens. Nice for wildlife photography (without the need to haul 20 lbs of equipment around) and also great to take a stab at astro-photography. The Minolta reflex is the only mirror reflex lens on the market capable of auto focus. It's a real gem and I got it at a truly reasonable price. It's got a few caveats like a fixed aperture of f8 and a funny bokeh but I can live with that.