I am addicted to taking pictures! I come by my addiction easily, since both of my Grandmothers enjoyed their photos and kept them all labeled and tucked away in albums. Of course, then my Mother also carried on with an album for every occasion. For me, my own picture taking began when I was a little girl and got my first camera from my Grandma Harman. (Here is a picture of the camera, Lindy got one too, it looks like I let Cyndi use mine that day. Can you believe it? What a nice sister I was.)
My first camera was a little box type one that I had to flip open the top and look down into it and then click the side switch. Black and white film only. I had it forever, and treasured it, but somehow, through the years, I lost track of it, which I can not believe. It is not like me to have let it go without remembering where it went. But I am sure that as soon as it was replaced by a newer model, it was just forgotten. The trouble was, it was so expensive to have the pictures developed that I didn't get to take very many. It didn't even have a flash. My next camera did. Remember those cube flash cubes? I've been through my share of Kodak cameras. So through the years of being a newlywed, new mommy, vacations, and holidays, I have marked it all with photos. I can not imagine not having a camera in my hand for any of those events. And so it was. Eventually I was upgraded to a really nice Pentax as a Christmas gift from my parents. It was stolen, we replaced it, etc, etc. I was happy with my pictures....and then...just before John sent me off to Guatemala for my 50th birthday, he borrowed a little digital camera from a friend at work. Nothing fancy, it had a teeny tiny screen to view your pictures, but he wanted to see if I would move on into digital. I am sure that he was thinking about how much money he would save not buying film and developing. I was determined no way, I loved my Pentax and the lens it had for getting things close up and far away. I love my albums. I was not going to give up my albums and only have my photos on a computer. I was just not going to switch. But I gave it a try just to please him. By the time I got home from Guatemala 6 weeks later, I was kinda liking it, but not better. Pretty nice to see your shot right away, put it on the computer and send it off. You only had to pay to make copies of the ones you wanted. John went ahead and bought it from his friend. Pretty sneaky, huh? Little by little, I realized I was using my digital more than the film. And then one day, I realized I had not taken a real photo in a long long time. Then just before Christmas last year, John handed me a wad of money with orders to buy myself a good digital. I had been sneaking peaks at one online. A Pentax that would take my favorite lens from my film camera. I knew just what one I wanted. So I wasted no time and bought it before I chickened out. Every since, I don't think I have gone a whole day without taking a picture. It is amazing. With my little memory card in it, I can take way over 1,000 pictures!!! maybe even 2,000, I have not needed to find out. I load them onto my computer almost as soon as I take them and then clear off the card and go out and fill it up again. I have begun taking it with me when I go out for my jog. (my workouts are way not what they should be, but they are way more fun now!) I still have my albums, I don't think I will ever give them up, but they are a whole lot smaller than they used to be. Now, I only pick my favorite pictures to have printed. Just a few to mark the times. It is so much nicer handing over a small album to somebody after a vacation and they can just flip quickly through and see a few of the best stuff. I can still see the faces of some of the people as I have handed over those past albums, 6 inches thick, weighing 30pounds...their mouths dropping open and eyes popping...I'm sure they were thinking "you gotta be kidding!"
My first camera was a little box type one that I had to flip open the top and look down into it and then click the side switch. Black and white film only. I had it forever, and treasured it, but somehow, through the years, I lost track of it, which I can not believe. It is not like me to have let it go without remembering where it went. But I am sure that as soon as it was replaced by a newer model, it was just forgotten. The trouble was, it was so expensive to have the pictures developed that I didn't get to take very many. It didn't even have a flash. My next camera did. Remember those cube flash cubes? I've been through my share of Kodak cameras. So through the years of being a newlywed, new mommy, vacations, and holidays, I have marked it all with photos. I can not imagine not having a camera in my hand for any of those events. And so it was. Eventually I was upgraded to a really nice Pentax as a Christmas gift from my parents. It was stolen, we replaced it, etc, etc. I was happy with my pictures....and then...just before John sent me off to Guatemala for my 50th birthday, he borrowed a little digital camera from a friend at work. Nothing fancy, it had a teeny tiny screen to view your pictures, but he wanted to see if I would move on into digital. I am sure that he was thinking about how much money he would save not buying film and developing. I was determined no way, I loved my Pentax and the lens it had for getting things close up and far away. I love my albums. I was not going to give up my albums and only have my photos on a computer. I was just not going to switch. But I gave it a try just to please him. By the time I got home from Guatemala 6 weeks later, I was kinda liking it, but not better. Pretty nice to see your shot right away, put it on the computer and send it off. You only had to pay to make copies of the ones you wanted. John went ahead and bought it from his friend. Pretty sneaky, huh? Little by little, I realized I was using my digital more than the film. And then one day, I realized I had not taken a real photo in a long long time. Then just before Christmas last year, John handed me a wad of money with orders to buy myself a good digital. I had been sneaking peaks at one online. A Pentax that would take my favorite lens from my film camera. I knew just what one I wanted. So I wasted no time and bought it before I chickened out. Every since, I don't think I have gone a whole day without taking a picture. It is amazing. With my little memory card in it, I can take way over 1,000 pictures!!! maybe even 2,000, I have not needed to find out. I load them onto my computer almost as soon as I take them and then clear off the card and go out and fill it up again. I have begun taking it with me when I go out for my jog. (my workouts are way not what they should be, but they are way more fun now!) I still have my albums, I don't think I will ever give them up, but they are a whole lot smaller than they used to be. Now, I only pick my favorite pictures to have printed. Just a few to mark the times. It is so much nicer handing over a small album to somebody after a vacation and they can just flip quickly through and see a few of the best stuff. I can still see the faces of some of the people as I have handed over those past albums, 6 inches thick, weighing 30pounds...their mouths dropping open and eyes popping...I'm sure they were thinking "you gotta be kidding!" Blame my Grandmas for the picture taking, but it was Bonnie who got me into Flickr. Another picture addiction. It is a really fun way to show off your pictures. And only those who really want to see them go there. I really enjoy it. I load up a couple of pictures and people find them and make comments, sometimes you get invited to post your photo on a group's photostream and you can win little awards. I look over other people's pictures and see all kinds of things I want to do, and learn a lot about taking a better picture. It has gotten to be all I think about when I am out driving, or whatever else I do, it is "Oh, I need to take that for Flickr" So on Monday, I went with Bonnie to the Waterfront downtown and took pictures of the cherry trees in bloom. Now how many pictures can a person take of a cherry blossom? Well, I'll tell you. I came home with 249!!! OK, so some of them are not of blossoms. I found a seagull and some ducks and a pigeon. 
And you can't miss out on those fancy old fashioned lamp posts...and how about the water fountain...gotta get a few of it too...
And you can't miss out on those fancy old fashioned lamp posts...and how about the water fountain...gotta get a few of it too...
I like the first picture. Very nicely done.
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