What A Camera Can Do

Mrs. C and I have, um, significant birthdays coming up. For our 100th birthday present, we splurged on a present to each other and bought a new SLR camera. We want to be able to take better pictures than our little pocket camera is capable of taking. From my younger days I still recall most of the basics with aperture, zoom, shutter speeds, and such. That is already coming in handy as we use this new camera.  Here are a couple of shots we took just experimenting. 

I remember my photography classes in eighth grade at Walker Junior High. Talk about cool stuff we learned. Mr. Appelgate taught us way more than just the fundamentals; he set up lessons on how to use SLR cameras, roll film cartridges from bulk, develop negatives, and use a darkroom. We stayed with black and white because the color supplies and equipment were too expensive and complicated.  We didn’t mind...black and white was the standard back then. We carried big SLR cameras around our necks and were encouraged to use them throughout the day. We had a great set up in our school, and eventually I became a photographer for our journalism class.

I never felt very connected in during junior high, at least not until I became more involved with music there. I was pretty geeky, and that camera around my neck sealed the deal. Uncanny how we school photographers had so much in common. Far from being athletic, and sort of goofy in social settings, waiting for our growth spurt to happen, and afraid of being stuffed in our lockers, we struggled to find our place in the world. But those school cameras gave us geek perks. As a student photographer I had to cover school events and take group pictures, which meant that I got to leave class early with the athletes sometimes. I had something other kids wanted...I had control over who gets their picture taken for the school newspaper!

Nowadays, I embrace my geekiness.  Let’s face it, cycling and blogging about it will probably not give me much help climbing the social ladder.  But this new camera, well it just might get me back some of those geek perks.