Photo Hog Heaven

I held onto Windows 3.1 for a long time before upgrading to Windows 95, and likewise with every new version that's come down the pike before moving up to the next new one.  I kept my old dumb phone much longer than the typical gadget freak that I am should have been without a smart phone.  Thus, it should come as no surprise that the loss of the camera I lamented four years and two months ago right here (The Passing of Papa Bear) was felt severely long past the acquisition of a new Olympus to which I'd never really grown fond.  With every picture I'd taken since April of 2010 came a sigh, not always audible but felt in my heart nonetheless.  No picture with any camera other than my Fuji S7000 looked quite right to me. The old, broken, long overworked Fuji sat on a shelf in my living room because I couldn't bring myself to toss it away.  Having had taken over 100,000 pictures its shutter button had become nearly an extension of the tip of my right index finger.

I'm not sure what it was that inspired me to see if there was an S7000 for sale anywhere online.  Maybe it was simply the deepening of the disappointment that had been accumulating gradually in me ever since the loss of that beloved camera and my dissatisfaction with all the pictures I'd taken since its necessary retirement.  It was on May 10th that I found one on Ebay for only $70 claiming to be virtually scratch free and showing no signs of use in spite of having been used.  With Father's Day coming up, and with me usually frustrating my girls by saying, "I don't know," whenever one of them would ask me if I wanted anything as a gift, I wrote to my younger daughter and sent her the link to the camera ad.

Because I will be away till late on Father's Day itself, I was presented with the "new" S7000 last evening.  My baby had ordered it for me about ten minutes after I'd sent her the link!  My fingers were nearly shaking as I took it out of the box - the original box with all the wires and paperwork, and even the plastic package insert that came with it when it was new.  The seller was totally correct in his description; it appeared as if it had never been handled nor used  It was maddening that I had no batteries on hand with which to test it so off to Best Buy I went to get new rechargeables for the camera and the external flash.

I've only had the chance to take a very limited number of pictures with it so far, the remainder of yesterday having been late in the day after I got back with the batteries and today demanding my presence at work. But, oh, how I'm looking forward to tomorrow as summer vacation begins for me at around 10:30 AM, and to the rest of the blessed string of weeks off from work in which I'll be able to take pictures till the cows come home and beyond.

The pictures from "on the road" that I'll post here will still likely be from the small Nikon that I carry on my hip all the time because I won't want to be bouncing the new "Papa Bear" around in the crate on the back of the scooter, but I'm looking forward to sharing with you also the shots that I'll take with the new S7000 when I'm not out on two wheels.  I'm sure you'll see the difference!  Well, okay, you probably won't, but I'll insist that I do, and that's what's important.