Sometimes We Forget It's Not the Tools

Like a child, who has just broken his new toy, I have been miserable since my Sony A900 crashed last week. Admittedly, I have been pouting over the tragic loss of my trusted 24 mega pixel picture machine. In fact, I have been downright awful about my plight these past several days.

So, this morning I decided perhaps a haircut might just help me rid myself of the blues, and get my life back on track. In fact, I thought I would just take my wife and her friend out to breakfast, and then get my haircut, and then........go do some shooting. I pulled out one of my older DSLR cameras, and threw it in the car. I had no idea where or what I would shoot this morning, but I knew in my heart that this was going to be the only medicine that could help.

After a wonderful breakfast, and a decent haircut, I said "goodbye" to the girls and off I headed for the morning adventure. Within a few minutes, I came upon a beautiful Magnolia tree in full bloom. This looked like the perfect place to start the day. I reached in my camera bag, and pulled out my old camera and exited the car, all the while, scanning the tree for the perfect blossom.

Within a few minutes, I saw a flash of red moving through the branches, and I could feel my heart start to beat faster. The thought of capturing yet another Cardinal in amongst the Magnolia flowers was all I needed to start this boy's blood pumping. And then......there he was. Directly in front of me stood this incredible specimen, and he seemed to be checking me out as much as I him. Starring at each other, I started shooting, making sure to adjust my exposure and focus as I moved sideways to get a better angle. Never knowing whether you will get 3 sec.s with a bird or maybe 10 mins. , I quickly began a series of rapidly fired exposures, bracketing each shot by a third of a stop.

Amazingly, in just a few short minutes, I had completely forgotten about my broken Sony A900, and had once again become close friends with this old camera. It was like to dear friends coming together at a reunion. It was like I had never left it.......and ashamed of the fact that I had forsaken it when the new guy showed up in my bag. The old camera forced me to think carefully about each shot, checking exposure and framing and composition. The old camera, which has no extra pixels for cropping, made me do it right ........the old way. Maybe we all could benefit from taking a few steps back once in a while.