Reactionary

They’re giving away a digital camera.

I had an old Canon A80… actually, I still have it but it’s long in the tooth at two years and 4MP. I almost took it everywhere. I wanted to be one of those people who takes their cameras everywhere because you never know when you’ll see something worthwhile. Actually, my old photography teacher used to say we should do exactly that. She had a huge backpack full of German glass, but I digress.

My old Canon is pretty beaten down now (not beaten UP, beaten DOWN) thanks to all the places I’ve taken it. It’s final significant journey was a rock concert in 2005. That was the situation wherein cameras or recording devices of any kind were verboten. So clearly, I had to break the rules so I could *prove* to everyone that I had been that close because I had the pictures to show for it. So down the front of the shirt the camera went. It was a mad rush for spots on the floor. The opening act came out and I kept it hidden. The crew came out to test out the real band’s gear and still I kept it put away. That’s the trick, see. Why risk getting it confiscated before it really matters?

And then the band came out and everyone screamed and there was much arm waving. In the commotion, the last thing a security guard cares about is confiscating your camera, especially when suddenly everyone has one, pulled from various hiding places. I had taken about 100 pictures when a surprise guest came on stage who no one had foreseen. The place went mad, and somehow so did I.

I found the button that recorded a small movie of the event, meaning I found an icon I had never used before and went with it. It was awesome. I screamed along with everyone else. The concert ended. I went home. Once there, it was late but I pried my eyes open so I could see my pictures and especially the cool little movie I’d taken of the once in a lifetime event. What I found where the little movie should have been were little streaks of color in the middle of a black frame and there was no indication that they moved in any way. How could that be?! I went back to the camera and in the cool hours of the early morning I saw then what should have been obvious to me in the hot arena. I couldn’t figure out what the icon I had gone to meant, but next to it was the very clear little icon of a video camera. It wasn’t the one I’d utilized.

When they’d finally coaxed me back off the ledge, I went to the owner’s manual and found out the setting I’d used was for a super-slow shutter speed, hence the streaks that were actually very famous human beings in motion. I’m still in therapy for that massive foul-up.

That’s just one of my camera stories.

HP sponsored this post. (They’re giving away HP cameras, clearly.)

December 29th, 2006 | Category: Life, Shutterbug |  Print |  Send it | Subscribe to comments | Leave a comment | Trackback URL