Say Cheese!

I grew up around cameras. My dad purchases a new camera every few years, and I remember several film cameras that he used when I was younger. My Aunt Vada also takes tons of photos of everything, and at one point, she told me she kept all the negatives (I wonder if my students know the meaning of this word in this context) in one box in her house, so if there was a fire, she'd grabbed that box and not the dozens (probably closer to a hundred) photos albums. My grandpa had a Polaroid camera that we loved to take photos with and wait a few minutes for our images to appear. (One time, Papa took some Polaroid shots of the TV set, while the music group, The New Kids on the Block, appeared on the American Music Awards on TV, so I could see them. He was afraid I wasn't watching the live show at my house. Little did he know that I was recording it on a thing called a VCR!)

I also have memories of my dad setting up a giant projector and screen in our family room, so we could watch "silent" films of me as a baby in the late 1970s. When my younger brother was born in 1985, my dad bought our first video camera. It was the bulky kind that required an assistant, usually me, to hold part of it in a camera bag while he filmed. We lugged it to Disney, Dollywood, beach trips and family gatherings. Part of the camera was actually the VCR, and it never failed that we couldn't find a blank tape to record something on when we needed it. I'm fairly certain the final episode of "Dallas" on TV erased one of my birthday parties.

I even found a camera in a cow pasture once. It was a bright yellow underwater camera in a bright yellow bag, and I discovered it one day while helping my day feed the cows in the field in back of our house. There was a roll of film in the bag that we developed, but it was hard to tell who had taken the photos since they were mainly of buildings in a large city. I'm not sure if it fell out of a plane or someone walking through our property dropped it. It's still a mystery, but I used the camera to take many underwater photos at the beach and in my grandparent's pool. 

I remember dropping off rolls of film and waiting for several days or even a week before we could pick up our prints, and we would always get two sets of prints. Then, a radical new way of processing prints within an hour happened. Now, I cannot remember the last time I actually had printed photos made. I guess it was for our wedding and honeymoon in 2004.

During college, I was a telecommunication major (fancy way of saying broadcast journalism), and we used very heavy and expensive cameras and tripods for reporting the news. One of my friends accidentally backed over a tripod while driving, and it cost several thousand dollars to replace it. Recently, I purchased a Kodak Zi8 pocket video camera for $120 from Amazon.com. It has a built-in USB arm that plugs into a computer, so it's easy to download good quality video and edit it in a matter of minutes.

Everything is much less expensive and easier to use now, and I am very fortunate that my family is camera and computer literate because my parents are keeping my nephew each week, and they send photos and video of him to me via email. My dad has a digital camera now that also records video, and it fits into his pocket. I guess he doesn't need an assistant anymore.

I am so thankful for these advancements since I am able to see the little guy smiling, laughing and growing into an adorable little man. I also can see how much my parents are enjoying their first grandchild. I can't imagine waiting weeks at a time for my parents to take photos, have them developed, and then mail them to me.

Here are a few of my recent favorites. I know I am biased, but I think he's probably the most adorable baby ever! :)

Here are a couple of videos. 

My brother and his boy....