One of my favorite possessions--and one of the best Christmas gifts I ever received--is my camera. I'd wanted a camera for a while because I absolutely love taking pictures (and filming the occasional video). So, I did the obvious thing and asked for a camera for Christmas. I put it to use immediately, and didn't really stop for the rest of the break.
Man, I carried that camera around like nobody's business. I took pictures and videos at just about every family get-together, vacation, or trip. Even if I didn't think we were going to need pictures taken, I brought it just to take pictures.
I still love my camera, and I'll never quite get over taking pictures with it. I'd use my camera over my phone to take pictures any day (as much as I love my camera, it's quite useless when trying to call my parents).
I don't use it as much anymore, since my phone is a little more convenient, but if we're going on a vacation or camping, you can bet that my camera will be one of the items I bring.
One of my favorite features of my camera is that it's a touchscreen. It was actually the first thing I ever owned that had a touchscreen (my Kindle Fire came the next Christmas and my smartphone came this past May). I thought it was the absolute coolest thing--and to be honest, I still kinda do.
I remember one time--I don't even remember where I was or who I was with--but I was telling someone about my touchscreen camera. Some bystander (I think it was someone I knew, but not well) interjected, "You mean a phone?"
I stared at whoever it was in complete shock. Whoever it was also gave me a bit of a dirty look. "No..." I said perplexedly. "A touchscreen camera."
"Yeah," the person said hotly, "that's a phone."
"No," I said, still completely bewildered. "Like, it's an actual camera...but with a touchscreen." At that point, I'm pretty sure they'd just walked away and weren't even listening.
I could not understand for the life of me why someone was irritated that I had a touchscreen camera, not a phone.
Of course, I rarely understand why people get offended these days.
I've pondered on that event a couple times, and I still don't understand why it happened, especially with someone I wasn't even talking to at the moment, nor do I understand why they seemed genuinely annoyed with me.
But I laugh about it now. Most people can't open their minds to anything past what their smartphone is, so it doesn't surprise me now. Maybe that person didn't have the phone they wanted, so they thought I was being a little snot and pretending my phone was less than it really was--just a "touchscreen camera."
To this day, there are few things more satisfying than grabbing my camera case, camera inside, and carrying it with me to whatever photo opportunities I'm off to discover. Just holding it gives me a sense of...not power, per se, but more the sense of, "I am holding a device that can capture a moment of the world around me in one frozen section of time and space, to be cherished by me forever." It's kind of crazy to think about sometimes.
I could never fully replace my camera. My phone can only do so much, and besides, I have standards when it comes to the quality of a picture. A phone is useful for convenience, but when I really want to remember something, my camera is the obvious choice.
Anyway, that's all for today. Cherish your memories, all right?
I hope your day is as awesome as you.
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