Picture this

I’ve always enjoyed photography and still do, which you probably know by now if you follow my blog.  My Canon SLR (not digital) has been gifted to our younger daughter, who not only enjoys taking pictures but loves old cameras.  It went with me everywhere for many years, even on my trip to Europe where, as I was backpacking, every ounce counted.  But back then, I was taking slides.  It wasn’t  as simple as going to Walmart and printing my own pictures.  I had to take them somewhere to be developed, then use a projector to view them.  Slides took up much less room than prints, however, and I still have a box filled with slides that one day I want to have transferred to CDs, skipping many years of photographic innovation to jump into the present.  I still believe that a series of panoramic shots I took of the Swiss Alps in Grindelwald were stolen by the photographer who developed them.  He said none of them turned out, although all the other shots around them did.

After college, instead of taking a teaching job immediately, I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and spent several years as a rather conservative ski bum, working throughout the winter and skiing when I could, rather than getting laid off in winter so I could just ski, as did some.  I had a variety of jobs that I somehow talking my way into, one of which was working in an art gallery.  The woman who owned the shop taught me to mat and frame and do who knows what else, but the thing that will always stand out in my memory is that while I was there, I matted and framed a picture of mine which I was allowed to offer for sale.  It was purchased by a lawyer and hung on his office wall.  I have to admit I quite enjoyed that!

The picture was taken in Ft. Wayne, Indiana where I did my student teaching.  I still like it and one of these days, I’ll have a print of it framed and put up in our house.