MIL gone digital

Last time my MIL visited us she brought her own cameras (2), and copious rolls of film (many many), which she ran thru very quickly. So this time, knowing she was going to be seeing the ocean for the very first time in her whole life (it still gives me a charge that we were able to give that to her), we figured she'd run thru SO MUCH film.  And since I have no earthly idea where to get film processed anymore (Snapfish, digital prints, even photo books sure, but real film?), and since she was going to be here longer this trip, we brought along our digital camera for her use, recognizing that even if a steep learning curve was required, she could put a thousand photos on it and we could delete the lousy ones, no harm no foul. She seemed hesitant and even fearful of breaking it but with the capacity for taking hundreds of photos she was willing to try. I've always been willing to loan out my point-and-shoot digital camera. I told mom that my then-4yo buddy (Miss ya, C!) once took 100 photos in an hour and by deleting some that were just bad and cropping others we got 30 really genuinely good shots¹. It's the law of large numbers. (Or monkeys with typewriters.)  

1 Tangentially, my dad gave me a 35mm camera back when I was 5yo and starting to go on school field trips. If I recall correctly, even though I had control of the shutter, he still did the focusing for me. But the photos that came out of it, I picked my subjects and took the photos. I am SO glad for automatic focus and the ubiquity of phone cameras.

So here are some pics mom took at the beach and at our airbnb² near Kitty Hawk.  

2 We stayed at what is my favorite airbnb to date. And by going before the "real" season, we were there for less than 1/3 of what it goes for in peak season, assuming it's available, which isn't often. 

 



This last one is my fave.

I showed her the photos she took once we got back to the laptop, and how easy it was to just delete some pics that were less-wonderful. And I did some cropping on a few photos, but not many.

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And then we went to the botanical garden in town. The tulips are in full bloom. And the hyacinths smell absolutely amazing. And not only did Betty get a little snap-happy, once we got back home, I had her doing some of the clicking anc cropping, always with the reminder that if she didn't like what the result was, she could just hit undo. There's great freedom in digital photography, even without filters and photoshop (we're not going there for a very long time). After a few she ceded the computer to me and was back to telling me what she was aiming for in her shots for me to crop. But as far as I know she's never used a computer before, and next time we'll have something to refer back to instead of it all being absolutely brand new. Growing as a person. And taking some very lovely photos.