For lack of a camera

I need my own camera. A point and shoot, not some fancy-dancy SLR hand-me-down from Max. Something easy and clickable ... and done! I borrowed Fran's for the trip. It was wonderful, I could set it down on the console and pick it up - whoosh! when I wanted a quick snapshot.

Max's camera sat in it's bag in the back of the Jeep. We had to stop and go into full production mode for him to take a picture (ok - a photograph).

Well, I gave Fran's camera back to her and Max's is sitting on the tripod here in the study with some big lens on it and ... well, I have no idea how to use it.

Yes, he knows that this is a priority for Christmas for me.

Before we went on the trip, I whined about a camera and he got his all set up for me so that I could just pick it up and take a shot. I felt a little like an opera singer standing in the back row of a high school choir ... it just wasn't right. I have no idea how to use that thing. I'm totally camera-stupid.

In high school one of my best friends was a photographer. I spent hours with him ... yup, even in the dark room (doing only photography, I was a stupid young woman). I took a photography class in high school. The darkroom was off the chemistry classroom (I guess that makes sense) and the chem teacher was a pretty good photographer - so it made even more sense.

I remember sitting in that stupid class trying to comprehend light and meters and ISO and F-stops and hearing 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.' For a very smart woman, that crap made absolutely no sense to me.

Max tried to teach me in the early days of our marriage. We spent every weekend traveling with his cameras. He is very patient and really wonderful at explaining difficult things. And again, I heard blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

You would think after nearly 15 years of being married to a man with that much knowledge regarding the camera, I would have picked up on some of it. Ummmm ... nope. The words no longer seem alien to me, but I really don't know how to apply what they mean to the little black box in my hands.

Max is going to upgrade his camera system as soon as the new Canon gets to the market. We are going to have a very nice camera that I should be able to use. The lenses will be interchangeable, it would be a dream camera for most people I know.

Except me. What in the world am I going to do with that monstrosity? I can't drop it in my purse, I can't leave it on my desk or tuck it in a drawer. It will require its own camera bag. Hello?!?! I have spent weeks looking for the perfect handbag - and now I have to carry a stupid camera bag? Think again.

Well, the original intent of this post was to whine about the reason I haven't put photos on my blog. I have (had) some fun things to say about items that have come into my home the last few days, but it's not that much fun without pictures.

Poor Max, he's going to come home from work tonight and I'll relay this entire monologue to him. He'll immediately get his camera set up so that I can use it again (to its fullest extent - hah!) and then he'll consider getting a point and shoot for me prior to Christmas. I'll have to remind him that though I don't seem like a very patient person, God has been training me for the last 30+ years (don't ever ask God for patience. I did when I was in high school and have been learning it ever since). I can wait until Christmas. But, it better be the first gift I open!

I guess it's time to go back to work now.