Early Present

Every December my wife and I send out holiday picture cards that feature our daughter and our pets. So shortly after Thanksgiving, we venture out to some festively-decorated place and take pictures.

Invariably, the pictures come out disappointingly below average¹, and we vow to stop doing it.

This year was no exception, and I started to think about getting a new camera. Ideally it would have great optics, like my father's old Canon AE-1 35mm SLR. But it would be digital as well. Unfortunately, digital SLR cameras tend to be very expensive, and the less expensive cameras keep getting better resolution but not better optics.

Then it hit me. I would buy a used SLR digital camera. What also hit me was the "for Sale" advertisement on the company bulletin board: "Canon EOS 300D camera..."

By now I know a gift from the Universe when I see it. (Thank you , Universe!) So I bought it. Instead of taking pictures like this:


I can take pictures like this:


So maybe next year our holiday picture cards will be perfect, or at least better than all my wife's friends' cards.

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¹For example, one year the subject was laughably off-center, but in my lemons-to-lemonade manner, I used that space to write a personal holiday note. Other years, nearly all the pictures were mostly dark or unfocused, except for one or two in which the pose was not quite right. One memorable year, everything was perfect except for the very important detail of the dog's red, shiny weiner, which demonstrated that he was very happy to have his picture taken. That was the year I taught myself The GIMP.