What a part of my life
that has become . . . taking pictures with dates recorded by the camera. Above is the first picture I took with my new Olympus digital. It had a flat dark gray card (before the state-of-the-art SanDisk that everything uses now), and I don't remember how much storage it had. I'm looking back now, writing this in 2009. This first photo was numbered by the camera "P1030001.JPG." The photo is my computer in Palisade, where I spent so much time working on my web site and the
Tapir Preservation Fund. The camera instructions are laid out in front of the PC, and a beanie tapir from Hungary is perched on the top of the monitor. For a number of years, we sold those in the
gift shop. The window open in the lower right must have something to do with the camera. I don't recognize it any more.
This is the bulletin board above Marco's computer desk. We sat back-to-back in the family room/office that had been converted from a garage before we bought the house. There was a wood stove, and it was a cozy place to work or play interactive games. We were into WarCraft, the really early version, among other things. Marco was a whiz at AutoCad drafting, and had his own business working from home. We had a cat and two dogs. It was a nice time.
I remember wanting to buy something just a little exotic when I bought the hanging thing, wanting to spend money when I really didn't have it to spend. I enjoyed looking at it, although it never served any purpose. Sometimes those things are the best - just something simple to take pleasure in.
Besides being fun, the new camera served a purpose. I would now be able to take better photos of tapirs for the gift shop. These two balsa wood tapirs had been purchased in Peru and donated to the Tapir Fund to raise money on eBay. My photo stand was a built-in bench on the back deck. I could hang various drapes from the side of the house and experiment with various lighting conditions. It was often either very bright or too much in shadow. Still, I began taking good pictures for the online store and for eBay - pictures that actually showed the items quite well an brought compliments and sales.
As I'm posting this about 9 years later, I don't remember exactly what I was doing with the camera. Some days you just want to see what you look like, or see what you look like different than usual (I usually don't wear make-up, but probably should, now that I'm getting older). The first shot, of course, is horribly burned out, but it shows the rug on the wall from Salasaca, Ecuador.
Ah. Not burned out.
Here's my first digital camera - the one I got before leaving Colorado.
Me again. Writing from 2010, I've been trying to grow my hair that long again. I wasn't having to color it yet in this photo, but between then and now it started coming in gray (and not in a nice way), so it's been through coloring and styling, and I kinda prefer the old hippie look. I'm on my way back there. Oh, hmm. I remember now. I was placing a personal ad and I needed a current photo. That's one of the scariest parts, especially when I'm feeling overweight. Well, actually, the whole thing is scary.
The back yard outside my Bond Street apartment.
I took this from the deck of the apartment balcony (slash fire escape). What a wonderful place!
Sunset from my apartment.
Sunset, part 2. Who ever said the Bond Street address was a slum? I'll take this slum any day.
