Say Cheese!

Parents photograph their babies. The first baby is the subject of dozens, even hundreds of photos. Then, although the novelty of babies never wears off, the novelty of photographing them must because there are hardly any photos of my bald baby head in the old photo albums. When their youngest baby was born to my parents, their eldest was seven years old. That didn't really leave much time for photography. Christmas when we were young was a time for matching pajamas and the family Christmas photo. Perhaps there were Christmas cards with the pajamas, but we were too young to be concerned about public humiliation.


My first cameras were a 110 and then a Polaroid One Step. They had different functions, and were adequate for their jobs. Then along came our babies, and I took hundreds of photos of both our girls from the get-go, spending much time and moneyburning up the roadways between home and Fotomat. Soon came the Christmas that spouse gave me the Pentax ME Super, a dream of a camera. There was no stopping me. Because of this fantastic camera, my photos were suddenly sharp and beautiful, and the girls were the subjects of gazillions more photos. Mealtime, nap time, vacations, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, there was no occasion too small or too big for a photo op. There are albums full of those photos, bookcases full of albums. My daughters were never going to feel that there weren't enough photos of them.

When our girls were young, we took them to Disneyworld for a fantastic family vacation. By this time spouse had surprised me with a movie camera, and both cameras came with us to Florida. We would have all the sights captured for all eternity. But was that really enough? Someone got the brilliant idea to bring a tape recorder on all the rides so we could capture all the sounds as well as the sights. It wasn't easy juggling two cameras and a tape recorder and taking small children by the hand on those moving vehicles, but we took turns with the technical responsibilities. We listened to those precious cassettes in the car for years afterwards until, one dark summer night, some very unkind person stole them. I wonder what they must have thought when they played them and heard "It's a Small World After All" or "Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a Pirate's Life for Me".

Our girls grew up, and the Pentax stopped working properly; despite having it repaired, it would not stop shooting. It was very sad for me and I consoled myself with a new Nikon SLR. It worked fine, and it took great shots. Both our daughters got digital cameras, but I expressed disinterest because I had my SLR. Then one Christmas, a daughter presented me with a digital camera. The joy from this new toy equaled or exceeded that of the Pentax ME Super. Shooting hundreds of photos with no film, deleting the blurry shots, instantly uploading them to the hp, all were like dreams come true. Why had I resisted going digital for so long?

And now it is Christmas time again. My mother, who has used her little old camera for years says she never wants a digital camera. We shall see what Santa brings.