“It shocks me how I wish for…what is lost and cannot come back.” Sue Monk Kidd (author of The Secret Life of Bees)
Like many of you out there, I have become addicted to new gadgets.
It’s so convenient to pop that cell phone into my purse – not for calling home, oh no, but to take photos and videos on the spur of the moment.
I mean, who wants to lug around a bulky camera with three different lenses on a hot summer day, along with that heavy purse that keeps slip sliding off the shoulder, and the must-have bottle of water for the moment I feel the tiniest bit parched?
Certainly, an SLR camera is no longer a prestigious object. It once used to make a statement that the owner was a serious photographer in a sea of amateurs.
Don’t mess around with that person when she was busy adjusting the zoom lens and shooting some distant subject!
In this age of James Bond- type gadgets such as Apple watches and Bluetooth earpieces, what is the statement conveyed by the odd person walking around town with a large, bulky camera?
Make way for old fart with that THING around her neck?
Or hey, my grannie had one of those a long time ago but we sold it on kijiji for 50 bucks?
Sure, there are a few twenty-somethings who appreciate the finesse of the DSLR camera’s capabilities, but they too are far outnumbered by their peers who, at a moment’s notice, snap out the iPhone to record any and every twitch, snarl, smile, in a series of selfies.
The fact is that modern iPhones and iPads and other similar gadgets do take such wonderful photos and are so easy to use that anyone can point and shoot and achieve high quality results.
So although I am all for nostalgia and keeping some traditions alive, I am perhaps more likely to use my iPhone than anything else to take pictures on the spur of the moment. In this instance, convenience wins.
Move over my old friend.

(sketch done in F.W. Acrylic Artists Ink by Daler Rowney and then painted with watercolour)
PS. Of course I realize that there were no DSLR cameras when those photos were taken. You have to allow me my moment of nostalgia!
Jeep understands!
Yes, I was thinking of him as I sketched this camera.