New Camera

Here's a few images from my recent trip to Morro Bay, CA, taken with my spankin' new camera.
Both Tornwordo and the Midnight Gardener suggested that the minute I brought a new camera into the apartment, Camille would reappear. Greg pictured her jumping out from behind a door brandishing a knife. So far that hasn't proven true, and the new camera has been here for a while. I'd love to see her again, but I fear Camille is truly gone. C'est La Vie.
I haven't discovered the new camera's name, though I and everyone who has met him thus far believes him to be male. Unlike Camille, he came with a manual, two actually -- one 'hard copy' for the basics, and a CD for the more elaborate features, of which he has a plethora.
Some of you may recall Camille revealed her name by sending me excessively punctuated, overly dramatic notes, as well as through quirky behavior that seemed to indicate opinions and preferences. (Yes, yes, they probably indicated waning abilities and my lack of a user's manual: shush.)
Camille's ways were a mystery to me quite often, and our relationship involved much learning and negotiation. So far the new guy has proven to be nothing if not accommodating, fulfilling my every request efficiently, and suggesting others that would never have occurred to me ('face recognition'? Seriously? 'SMILE recognition'? 'Blinking eye recognition'?) I've done some reading through the 107pg Adobe read-only manual to learn about his many talents and abilities, but so far I've mostly been content to use his 'smart button' which means he makes all the necessary decisions about lighting, exposure, focus and such. In other words the button is obviously ironic, but some clever boots in marketing recognized that calling it the 'dumb-ass button' would not have endeared the camera to its users.

At some point I assume a name will present itself, though I suppose it's possible my relationship with this fancy-pants machine will be like the one I have with my cell phone. That has never earned name, largely due, I believe, to the fact that it's never given me any trouble. I don't ask a lot of my phones, you understand; I like it if they let me talk to other people, and it's really swell if they take messages for me when I'm unavailable, but anything beyond that is gravy. Little camera, that's nice, a clock, great, voice-dialing, way cool, though I've used it exactly once, just to see if it would work. Not really a time saver, once you set it all up, but cool nonetheless.

I can likewise see myself at least trying all the features of this guy at least once, just to say I did. I've done a certain amount of what my dad calls 'guy' exploration, which is to say I've punched a bunch of buttons at random just to see what happens, even if getting myself back out of trouble is all I can manage. The nice thing about this camera, as opposed, say, to a computer, I can always just shut it off and start fresh, with the worst thing happening being I may have lost an image or two. There will always be more images.

Hm. I actually hadn't meant to spend all this time rabbiting on about the camera. There's more to say about Morro bay (say that out loud; it has a nice lilt, and it rhymes), including a story about the trip to the airport. I guess that will be another post or two. Oh, and I can now take video with this new guy. Audio and visual. I'm very excited. I've taken two short videos so far, both in Morro Bay, both of the ocean. I feel they are strongly reminiscent of early French Cinema, which is to say they're like watching paint dry. The longer one is only two minutes and you still feel like you wasted some precious life force in watching it. So maybe I'll hold off on showing you any videos after I've read some more of the manual. You're welcome.