the case of the lazy camera

I first started taking photos* when i was on sick leave from work (about three years ago or so) and it became such an obsession that i got myself a panasonic lumix, in the vain attempt to make things look better.

* not strictly true as i recently found some photos of ducklings i took when i was about 10 ;)

For a while, probably over a year, i'd take over 20/30 shots a day, mainly of things i saw whilst out walking the dog, but nothing ever particularly arty or decent as it was just for fun...and i just didn't have the talent, but (and this is the factor i forgot, until recently) i really enjoyed trying to bridge the difference between what my eyes saw and what the camera captured, just had fun with discovering it all

I continued in much the same enthusiastic, eager-to-learn way, putting photos on flickr nearly every day, hunting out unusual things to take snapshots of, et.c., until about August last year, when the lumix finally refused to focus. I duely went out and purchased another, much cheaper, slightly inferior camera but, to be honest, it just wasn 't the same. It's kind of like being a child and riding around on one of your friend's bikes - doesn't feel quite right but you can't explain why

bionicle eye

I had come across my old lumix, just sitting in its bag, feeling sorry for itself, a few days before and plugged the battery in to start charging, though wasn't too hopeful anything'd happen as i knew even if the battery charged-up, there'd still be the faults on the camera that it had before...or so i thought! Like a giddy toddler after too many e numbers, i found, to my extreme delight, that old lumix, old faithful, old pal, had restored my faith and fun in photography and was actually working

Bit of a rant about nothing, but (and this is very rare!) i'm quite excited by the prospect of getting out there with my lumix and rediscovering a lost passion again...and also quite confused as to why the lumix decided to stop working all those months ago - maybe to make me appreciate it properly (à la 'you don't know what you've got 'til it's gone'), or maybe, just maybe, 'cos it's the laziest camera in the world?