A couple of days ago I thought I was kind of crazy to be buying a ridiculously expensive camera, but today that regret is nearly gone. A check of the business finances shows it'll be 25% paid off already this month, as planned, and the rest in five or six months tops.
My concern is not to start raking in money with it right away, though I will put out feelers with the production houses looking for HD freelancers. The day I get it I'm going to go out shooting anything, maybe at the zoo. After that, a party to shoot a short feature with friends (screenplay ideas forming now). As I get comfortable shooting with it, I'll start writing a feature-length screenplay.
The empowerment for my creative juices is already something I'm feeling. It's a feeling I haven't had since 1998, when I bought my first (and only) professional digital camera at my former job. It's something I can't easily explain.
And here's the weird thing, that influence is spilling over into other areas like my motivation for programming. That's something I didn't expect. Yes, it's an expensive hobby (or business perhaps, we'll see), but the payoff in terms of my happiness and lust for life is worth every penny. My creative needs have gone unsatisfied for way too long.