My first digital camera that recorded dates

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.

Ted on vaction at a lake - sometime in the 1990s?

The top photo and the enlargement from it (2nd photo) were taken, as far as I can tell, sometime in the 1990s. The scans are from the only copies I have, which are printed from a computer. I believe this is a favorite place that Dad and Lois enjoyed visiting, or they were on vacation with some friends. I'll try to get more info and post the facts as soon as I can.

Lupine in Palisade

I took this with my Polaroid and scanned it with the first color scanner I had. Using images in this way was brand new and exciting. It was also exciting that anything was growing in the front yard besides weeds, because when we rented the house (which we later bought), the landscaping had consisted of rocks and gravel heavily sprayed with herbicide. There were a few flowers, but we wanted more. We didn't realize it was going to take years of growing weeds to get the soil in condition for even the hardiest of flowers. Any flowers at all were a gigantic coup, and were much cherished. And lupine is wonderful.

April 2, Palisade: Sunset over Mount Garfield

Palisade, Colorado ~ April 2, 1996

Scanned from a series of Polaroids

Palisade, Colorado, did not have as many breathtaking sunsets as one might expect. A few miles south in Delta, the conditions seemed to be better. Maybe there was more dust in the air. But when we got a good sunset, it was usually glorious. I loved to stand outside our house and watch the colors change through the brief minutes of the display. This sunset, I believe, followed a rollicking rainstorm.

Some of these are very subtle. You may want to click to enlarge. I hadn't planned to spend the day taking dust spots out of photos, so some areas are still not too good when enlarged. I am pleased with the results, though. The colors are almost as intense as on the originals.

Figuring out how to make the scanner see the Polaroid.

I absolutely loved how the sun caught both the top of this tree and the mesa beyond (below in the photo) with its last golden light. And then there's the storm-indigo still in the cloud.

This is the last of the sun's red glow on the low mountain in the distance.

This blog is sponsored by Tapir and Friends Animal Store.

June 22, Corona: Bernice J. Todd's 100th birrthday

Bernice Jameson Todd poses with her children and their spouses on her 100th birthday (June 22, 1991). She lived for another two years.

Back row: Chuck Hewitt, Lee Todd, Clem Todd, Ted Todd, Lois Todd
Front row: Helen Hewitt, Bernice J. Todd, Bernice Morris, Jim Morris

Scanned from a color xerox. The photo was taken in Grandma's interior patio with the big wooden table we all remember from so many family gatherings.