Some of My (camera) Baby’s Greatest Hits

My “Baby” is moving on to a new life and a new place –

and my husband has given me a new camera. It is quite an upgrade from a Canon EOS 2D to an EOS 70D. The man at the camera store was pretty surprised I’d been using this first-generation digital camera for so long. I’ve enjoyed her companionship through the years, along with a 30-year old hand-me-down telephoto lens that was my bread and butter. I’m branching out a bit more and hope to bring some better pics here in the future.

I began taking pictures in elementary school when my parents gave me my first camera. There were many years in which I had no camera at all, or I had a camera, but little money for film or its development. So my photography history is sketchy with huge gaps. I have many wonderful memories that reside in my heart, perhaps to be more easily forgotten without the photo to bring them back to my consciousness.

My father has enjoyed photography all his life and has many terrific pics to his credit. When we were kids, we took a ride on the steam-powered train that still runs from Silverton to Durango, Colorado. We had fun and couldn’t wait to see his photos. When we sat down to his vacation slide-show, we

teased him mercilessly. Every train picture was full of elbows, heads, and other people taking the same picture. He was focused on the train and the scenery, as any good photographer must, but couldn’t control all the other tourists around him. It was a wonderful lesson to me, as I began taking pictures in my later years, to focus on all the elements of the composition. Power lines are MY nemesis, and I’m not so good at Photoshop that I know how to edit them out. I simply look for another angle or don’t take the picture at all.

In tribute to my old Baby, here’s a few of my favorites – a smattering of her greatest (non-family) hits. If you click on a picture, you can see it enlarged.