Yesterday as I placed my camera on the counter for repair at the Best Buy store I realized I would likely never see it again. The Geek helping me said the assessors would surely consider it unfixable. As the Cannon S95 sat waiting to be processed into oblivion, I felt sad. I easily loved this camera.

The camera traveled for the most part in the bottom of my purse. It would sit sometimes for weeks ignored. But when it came out, its purpose was to record joy. In its 3 short years of existence it took thousands of pictures and recorded a bevy of videos that later became movies.

I’m thankful for the low barrier of entry into digital multimedia. Even though my first digital camera, a Christmas gift in 1999, sat in the cupboard for 6 months before I used it with any regularity. Prior, the act of taking photos was very precious. Each photo taken was generally with smiles from the subjects staging the good life. Each photo was meant to be commemorative.

Of course our relationship with photo taking has become very casual, and often a love/hate relationship. Too often there are too many cameras capturing an experience rather than allowing us to just be in the experience. It reminds me of the saying don’t mistake the pointing finger for the moon. I am a guilty one, but my guilt is eased as I look back with gratitude at the videos shot back in the 80’s. Gratitude for catching animated moments of those who are no longer with us.  Back then I would get snarling and spitting commentary from family members as I captured events. Now for the most part cameras are accepted. We all recognize that digital recording has changed society; I wonder though if in another 30 years we’ll look back with gratitude? We might point to this moment in time and say this is where we became continually on stage.


 
Here is the last picture I took. This is the Columbia River where I-90 passes over it. I didn’t plan on this being the last picture and of course it has a story. I was capturing the low river level. The Wanapum Dam a few miles downriver has cracks and so they are keeping the pressure off. Interestingly, the low river has exposed human remains likely hundreds of years old. So many stories captured through images…

I remembered the insurance was about to run out on the camera and while I could live with the cracked screen, it was periodically not recognizing the battery and would take sometimes 1 ½ seconds to snap a picture. The day before, I was capturing people jumping of rocks and into the water. 1 ½ seconds often meant not getting the shot.

 
This image shot a day earlier at Sun Lakes was lucky. He is for the briefest of moments standing on the water.

Thanks camera.