Smudger Snippets
Created | Updated Feb 18, 2009
I suppose it's because I have so much time on my hands these days, that all these memories come flooding back to me.
My New Camera
I was really pleased with myself as I went through to the kitchen to make a nice cup of tea, and got that nice feeling of confidence which is rather dangerous when it comes to technical things like computers. The thing was, I had just managed to transfer all the photos of the latest member of Mk2's family, who is in fact Mk2's great niece. We hadn't had any visitors for a week or so, well apart from Mk2's youngest son who pops in now and then to see his Mum, as he now lives in the same village as us. He brings films on DVD for us to watch, which we really appreciate as we do not get out at all these days due to Mk2's failing health.
Anyway, he had just arrived with the latest DVD when we saw one of her sisters pull up outside our house; she had brought her daughter, who had brought her daughter—yes all three generations of them! The baby of course was the reason for their visit, and was my excuse to get out that new digital camera that Mk2 bought me for our wedding anniversary a couple of months ago. Then, would you believe it, another of her sisters arrived a few minutes later along with he husband, so we had a house full of visitors. They're just like buses, none for ages then they all come at once: anyway we were really glad to see them all.
Now I had been playing with the camera for a while, just finding out more about it, and how it works. I even tried taking videos with it, which to my surprise turned out rather well. The thing with these new digital cameras is, you get to see the picture right after you have taken it, not like the old cameras where you had to wait until you had finished the whole spool, which could be months, then wait for it to be processed, which took another couple of days, before you see the pictures you had taken. Whereas with the digital camera you can delete your mistakes straight away (which is just as well, as I had taken some bad ones as well!)
Anyway, out came my camera, and I was taking pictures of the baby as she was being handed round the doting adults. It was while I was showing the photos to them, that they asked me if they could have copy. This is where my limited technology skills came into being, as I said that I could e-mail them to their computer at home. Feeling rather smug with myself I did it straight away. Going back to that confident feeling I had at the beginning, I had just transferred all the photos that I had taken earlier from the camera onto the computer.
Not only that, I also uploaded them onto the external hard drive that I was given as a Christmas present, along with all my backed up music and documents. Who would believe it, it wasn’t that long ago when I was scared to download a simple program, and had no idea what an external hard drive was. That seems like a long time ago now, but in fact it’s only been a few years, and yet it's even harder trying to keep pace with this modern technology.
They have this thing called a Dongle now that gives you Internet connection even if you are way out in the wilds, and then there is Bluetooth which is basically a remote control for all you electronic gadgets. I could be wrong there, as I do not have Bluetooth, and no doubt someone will correct me if I am wrong! Also a newcomer for me is the Flash Drive, which is memory stick that allows you to transfer data between computers without the need to burn it to disc any more, which was the way I had to do it before Flash drives came out. I mostly use my one for transferring photos between my lap-top and desk-top computers. This is where I get back to my camera again, as I seem to have strayed off course there.
These digital cameras are really great, as once you have taken a digital picture, there is so much you can do with it. You can easily send it via e-mail anywhere in the world in a few seconds. It can also be cropped to size, either while it’s still in the camera or on the computer once it has been transferred. You can also fix 'red eye' which can spoil a good picture, by using the mouse or touch pad; you can repair any 'red eye' in a couple of seconds. A digital picture can also be modified, where you can remover a person or item from it and replace anything as well. You can resize your picture without losing any focus or quality, if it has been taken with a camera with a high number of megapixels, like the one I have, which has 12 megapixels.
When I first got my new camera I wanted to put a normal photo, which was one of my favourites, into my computer, but because I never had a scanner I could not scan it in. So I tried something else. I took a picture of it with my camera on a tripod, to stop camera shake, then hooked up the camera to my computer and transferred it into the computer.
To my surprise it worked; in fact once it was in the computer I could enhance it, and sharpen the detail of it, and it ended up looking even better than the original picture. I was so pleased with the result that I repeated the exercise on some of my other favourite pictures. I was never really interested in photography before, but since I was given this new camera, I have found a new interest, and now enjoy not only just taking pictures with it, but also enhancing them in the computer after I have transferred them in there. So if you have a digital camera and a computer, why not give it a try. After all, you can delete your mistakes straight away, so no one will ever know, and of course you can show your successful results with pride.
