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Our neighbour’s cherry trees are in bloom and today I persuaded my camera to take a photograph, which yesterday it was reluctant to.
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But by the time we got to the end of the road, it returned to sulking.
It could be said that I am intolerant of devices which do not function in the way they should.
They get hurled or thumped and thoroughly abused.
To no avail, usually.
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Though there was one very satisfying moment, years ago. Occupied with administrative work, my mouse had been giving up its ghost.
Appeals for a replacement had been unproductive and in frustration I threw it against the nearest wall, then presented the bits as evidence of my needs.
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When faced with systems outages, I made threats:
“We remember how to go manual, you know!”
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Times like that, us old fogeys were appreciated but soon the tasks became too complicated and then we resorted to sitting around muttering.
Hoping the system would come up before the passengers turned nasty.
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My personal nemesis, printers. I never met one I could work with. Not one. Threats?
“You can be replaced, you know!”
Somewhere there is a repository of my rejected printers and they are all having a good laugh, I’m sure.
“We really foxed her!”
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I have not (yet) threatened or abused my camera mostly because I am sure it is behaving badly because of my own ineptitude, though I can’t see how.
Turning on and off, removing the battery, re-set multiple times.
Two days ago the camera decided to play games. As I lined up the image, the focus changed, as if to say:
“Don’t like that picture. Not taking it.”
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This is somewhat vexing.
How am I to capture pictures of my little friends?
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There’s my other camera which takes nice images but lacks a strong zoom.
And…other problems.
It too caused a lot of muttering.
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“If you’re going to take pictures of me you’d better get sorted out.”
“Because I deserve to be in focus!”
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“Not just my feet and my purple bits!”
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“That’s better but I can’t keep this pose for long.”
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“You can’t blame the camera for that screw-up!”
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“Now we’re getting somewhere.”
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“You can almost see what a posh pigeon I am.
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“What do you think, Mildred?”
“Did you check out the food supplies?”
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Last time I heard, they were still debating whether or not to put us back on their regular itinerary.
Sometime last year we appeared to fall out of favour.
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As for cameras…
The iPhone takes some good pictures.
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But it doesn’t satisfy every need.
Well, what does?
Honestly, Carolyn, you don’t seem to realize how talented you are! No matter what camera you are using, the photos are wholly professional and wonderfully beautiful! I have never had enough of your sky and clouds studies, the sunset’s suffused fields, or your tributes to the many creatures who are happy to pose for you!
Your captions are brilliant too! Thank you!
Joanna
It can be very frustrating when technology forgets who is in charge and takes a decision all by itself!
Problems, problems. Where would we all be without problems?
My printer suddenly refused to recognise my PC almost 2 years ago, despite being the same brand of electronics. (HP) I ‘updated the drivers’, rebooted the PC and the printer, unplugged and plugged in every connector, installed a brand new printer cartridge, then pressed ‘Print’. Nothing. Then me being me, I decided that as I had only printed two returns labels and a form for my step daughter in the previous twelve months, I didn’t actually need a printer. So I disconnected everything, left the printer where it was on the desk (It’s still there) and stuck two fingers up at it. I can’t print anything, but it felt like a victory.
Best wishes, Pete.
The cherry trees are so beautiful and so cheerful. I also had a printer years ago that gave me severe headaches. I’m not a big movie fan, but if there’s one movie I can relate to right now when it comes to printers, it’s “Office Space” … see if you can find it on YouTube (or somewhere), it’s really good. Beautiful photos of your garden friends — especially the pigeon that posed so beautifully! Always something to be grateful for.
I found Office Space. It made me chuckle!
When I left the company years ago where I had so many problems with that printer, I wished I could take the printer to the open field at the back of the building and do the same with it as the guys from Office Space!
Ha ha! Yes that would be very satisfying!
Love the cherry blossoms. What camera do you use?
Ah…I’m not sure which one that was because I’ve had “issues”! I think it was the Nikon CoolPix but I also have a Lumix and now I have a Minolta that I am getting acquainted with. I have vision problems and my hands shake, so there are challenges but I try!
I used to have a Nikin CoolPix, which I sold on FB Marketplace as it wasn’t as good as the Lumix I bought in Bolivia in 2011. These small compac cameras are great to take on treks and hikes but still take good photos.