cameras obscurae

the sand you see is embedding itself in my lens

I took a week off and was down in Westport. The weather was okay. I went to the beach every day both to get exercise and also to take photos of the plovers that run by the shoreline, eating little things in the sand. I had a few friends on the internet who enjoyed them which was an extra nudge to get outside and get some photos, even in marginal weather. I like being outside with a camera. But, the beach isn’t nice to cameras. So the top photo is the last picture my old camera took before the lens would no longer open without a sickening grinding noise and then finally wouldn’t open at all. I am old enough to know better.

So because I am a terrible creature of habit and it had taken me so long to warm up to this damned camera after losing its predecessor in a lake, I wanted to replace it. You’d think a camera that was a few years old would be easy to replace. Turns out, for better or worse, this model has held its value decently well, but I was able to find a “like new” model through the Amazon Marketplace for about half off. And, because I have a small stack of Amazon gift cards [thanks dad’s frequent flyer miles] the price was free-to-me.

The camera arrived, and was like new enough, so I had it when I went to Topsham yesterday to walk the land with a couple who were maybe interested in buying it. It’s a confusing process, wandering around looking for metal stakes in the ground which, you hope, indicate the property boundaries. This is doubly true when it’s foggy like this. From the back of my property you couldn’t even see the house. This is not, technically, the first photo with the new camera. The first one is some confused squinty close up of me; you could easily add a thought bubble “Is this thing on? Oh I guess so!” I like this one better.

Topsham