FRUSTRATIONS!

It's just been a week since I have decided to engage in this savings project so I can finally (eventually!) be able to purchase the camera I have always longed for. Just a week, and yet hurdles have already started popping up.

So where should we start? My room mate will be leaving in a few weeks so the rent will have to come from my own pocket and mine alone. And the icing on the cake: the rent just went up! NOK 8200 for a 35 square meter, poorly furnished apartment seems a lot. I don't know is this is really the going rate in this part of Oslo (I live in a very nice part of the city though) or if I am just simply being screwed in broad daylight!

In any case now would be a good time to vent out my frustrations. More expenses mean less money to save. Less money to save means that it might take even longer for me to be finally able to purchase a Leica M9-P with a 50mm Summicron lens. I did the math and after paying rent, utility bills, 30-day transportation card, internet (I really need to downgrade my internet plan) and setting aside money for food (mind you, I plan to eat simpler meals and fewer portions, being a vegetarian helps), I would end up being able to save around NOK 3000 at the most. I am still hoping that the vacation money I will get from my employer will be of a reasonable amount. And of course, I am hoping for a good income tax return! Last year I got NOK 25000 which for one reason or another mysteriously disappeared. Had I only saved that...grrr now I am even more frustrated! And I have run out of snus and have no more intention of ever buying them again. Help!

Having setbacks like these would probably lead one to just give up and scrap the project. Had this happened just a year ago I probably would have thrown in the towel already. But this time things are different. The setbacks have just motivated me more. It's going to be a difficult journey, but I know that it will be worth it. Photography has always been a passion, and knowing that getting a digital rangefinder is within reach makes me all the more motivated to finally get it. I have loved Leica cameras since childhood, and I have always dreamed about getting a (digital) rangefinder. Now is that chance. It's now or never. I say NOW!

I will not just sit back and grit my teeth, and let my photographic skills go to waste while waiting for my back account to fill up. I still do own a DSLR, and a very good one at that, so there is no excuse for me to not venture out and hone my skills. It is tempting to just stay at home. But to be able to call oneself a true photographer one has to make do with the equipment one has, and do whatever it takes, whatever the equipment, to improve his technique and his art. So I have to go on my photographic excursions again soon. I should probably participate in the Oslo Photo Marathon again this summer (I had to ditch last year's competition because of pollen allergies, but I am going to be prepared this time). A Leica is a very expensive piece of equipment, and I have to be sure that I possess the desire and the skills to actually DESERVE to own one.

I feel a little bit better now. Still a little bit frustrated, but determined. I know that when I want something so much I eventually end up getting it. I know for this project that this will be the case.