Feeling Disarmed

Last week I took my big Canon DSLR into the camera "Doctor" for the annual check up and cleaning that I wish I would have started doing sooner.  This little camera repair place in Provo is a family owned and operated joint with a darling, if (on occasion) a little curmudgeonly, married couple.

They work on all sorts of cameras, but since Nikon has decided no aftermarket repair parts will be sold, their work on Nikons is sliding steadily.  But I have a Canon so that is not my problem.

I have been without it now for a week and two days.  The little couple went back east Tuesday to see a new grand-baby, making what would normally be a 24-turn around into a much longer one.  I didn't realize how much I use the camera day to day.  Sure on big occasions, like, a Girl's 17th birthday....I'd assume to use it.  Man I missed it yesterday.

I will be calling today, as I haven't heard from them at all, to see if the camera is perhaps done and waiting for me to pick it up like a child whose parent is late getting to day-care.  I feel bad about leaving it, but I know it is a necessary procedure.

Sort of like when The Boy had his tonsils and adenoids removed and I have to leave the poor little thing alone with the surgical team who knocked him out and  ripped them out and left him breathing dragon-like bad breath.  But that is another story.

Here's hoping I get my camera back home, and in renewed condition, today.

Stop the World! I Wanna Get Off.

I just spent the most relaxing and enjoyable morning I have had in a long time.  I got everyone off to where they belonged today and headed up the canyon to photograph the colors of fall.  I left at 9:30 or so and got home about noon.  I shot over 150 photos.  That is where the relaxing and enjoyable part ended.  I shot over 150 photos that you cannot see.  Yet.

Here's the frustration of my day.  I have a digital SLR Canon D20 that I got for Christmas in 2004.  That makes it almost 6 years old, right?  Am I doing that math right?  Well, in the ensuing years since I got it, my computer operating system has been upgraded--maybe twice--and now the driver I have always used to peel the photos off the camera is no longer functional.  Not only that, but they no longer even make an upgrade for said driver that I need to access photos off my camera.

I am so irritated!

I am going to sound just like my mom here, so prepare yourselves:

How can these electronic things become so outdated so quickly, when I am taking very good care of things and could potentially have this same model camera forever?!?

My first SLR film camera I got when I was about 10.  I still have it.  It still works.  Assuming, of course, I can find somewhere that sells and then later processes film.  So it is thirty years old and works great!  In fact, the camera repair guy told me (when I took it in for a cleaning, about the time I got the new digital one), that I should hold on to the film camera as long as I can.  And if I ever thought to get rid of it to call him first--he'd buy it.  It is that good.

Now I have to wait for Genius Golfer to get home and have him figure out what to do next to locate another driver for this dumb camera.  This is the kind of stuff--I mean, electronic stuff--that makes me envy the pioneers just a little bit.  I don't mean I'd change places with them--uh, hello?  Indoor plumbing?!--but Ansel Adams did some amazing work with a very old fashion camera and I bet he never even thought of a "driver" for his camera, unless it was a pack mule operator to get that old heavy thing into Yosemite where he was shooting!

Bad Mom

The Girl swam this morning in the Region HS Championships. I forgot to bring the camera. Genius Golfer forgot the video camera.

Who am I? And what have I become?!

Nerves

I was given my digital SLR camera for Christmas in 2004. I took a long time to want to switch ti digital, as I was already very comfortable with my film camera. I loved that camera. I had used it since I was about 10 or 11, when I took photography in 4H. I didn't think I could ever enjoy another camera like that.

Well, the digital switch for me was less my decision, and more Genius Golfer's. He just picked one out. He always picks out good stuff, so that wasn't a problem. In essence, he picks out thing much more advanced than I tend to like--but as I have watched, most gadgets do more than I really need anyway, so a camera was really no different.

With the purchase of the camera, came a series of "free" classes on digital photography. We are now inching up on five years with the digital camera and I am finally committing myself tot his series of courses. There is still much to learn with this camera, about the world of digital, and about photography generally. I could take classes until digital is upgraded to something else, and I still would have things to learn.

But in a rush of "back-to-school-ness" I am signed up and going. Starting today. In about a half hour. I feel a little nervous, to be honest. What if no one likes me there? What if I don't make any friends? It has been too long since I took a class, what if I can't remember the stuff they are teaching? What if there are tests?

PTA back to school stuff is much less personally stressful. But wish me luck. I'm going anyway. When my nerves settle down. Or my stomach stops flip flopping. Let's just say, I'll keep you posted.