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Saturday 6 August 2011

Being digitalized

Last night I finally did it!  I did.  I bought myself a digital camera!

Don 't get too excited - though I am - it's just a point and shoot.  But it's about 100% better than what I'm using now - no camera.  Yup.  30 or so years ago, we received a basic 35 mm camera as a wedding present, complete with f stops, an extra lens for distance shots, and a big canvas bag to tote it all around in.  In was a lovely gift from my sister-in-law and her future husband!  However, despite my high hopes, I had no real talent for it - and film was reasonable, but developing wasn't.  Trial and error just seemed too expensive a way to learn.


So most of my 1st child's baby pictures were taken with a polaroid camera.  Remember those?  Watch them develop in front of your eyes in just minutes!  That's pretty much all they had going for them.  Looking at those pictures now; small, fuzzy and discoloured, their great value lies in the memories they trigger.  I's first bedroom, and my first whole-room wallpapering job.  (One wall of accent wallpaper was popular.)  I can't believe we did three walls in a neon green, orange, yellow, and blue plaid on white, with an accent wall of matching green, orange, yellow, and blue balloons!  (Some memories are more enjoyable than others.)  Now that I think on it - now wonder he had trouble falling asleep!


So my photographic ambitions languished, and my Mom documented I's growth, E's birth, Christmases and birthdays with her camera.  My kids grew, and so did the amount of technology in our house.  Enter I & E's digital cameras and cellphones - even phones that take pictures!  I knew the technology existed, but ever try borrowing a teenager's camera ?


Last night, my husband, J & I went to Canadian Tire looking for batteries for our cordless phones.  It's a peculiarly helpless feeling when your phone rings, you answer: "Hello, Hello?"and the phone is dead and light- less in your hand!  The answering machine kicks in and someone tells you something urgent, but you don't have the battery life to tell them you'll come help.  GAH!  (You'd think the store that sold the phones would sell the batteries too?  So did I.  But after shopping around, I now know why they don't.  Yup.  If you knew that replacing the batteries in your 3 handsets was going to cost you $90 in a couple years, would you buy those phones?  'Course not.)  However at Canadian Tire, right beside the cordless phones - (batteries available at Walmart, in case you're curious), are digital cameras.  And - one of the things I love about Canadian Tire is their sales - a cute little point and shoot digital camera 40% off.  I've been thinking about joining the digital age for some time now - and it called to me...  $60 is pretty cheap to get your toes wet, I thought...  So I bought the little thing, and brought it home!  Only problem is, after the clerk opened the packaging to show me the camera, we left the printed info and the start up CD at the store!  So, I'm off to get the instructions now...


Maybe next year I'll enter the cellphone age...
Digitally Yours,
Barb

Photos by E - garden by me.  Watch for my photos coming up... hopefully... soon...

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