Mama's Got A Brand New Bag

One day, my trusty little five year old point-and-shoot camera, with which I have taken most of my blogging photos, was fine and the next day it was dead. Gone. Kaput. Finito. It kept all the previous photos I had and would happily display and transfer them but take a new one? No can do.

I tried to resuscitate it by charging its dependable little battery, taking it to the geeks for help and even pleading but nothing worked. It was just tired after taking thousands and thousands of our photos, so it laid down and died.

I loved that little camera. Small and light, portable and pocket sized, it took fine snapshots and was simple to use. I owe whatever photographic quality this blog boasts to its handy little self. You see, unlike many food bloggers, I don't pose and plan my photos while my dinner gets cold, carefully plating and accessorizing before photographing with a high-priced, super duper, whizzbang camera. Most of my shots take less than five seconds to frame and shoot. Sometimes I get My Beloved to stand and make a shadow across the plate - it improves the image - but even that takes less than ten seconds and the camera is set aside while we're sitting down to eat. I rely on the camera to make up for my haste at getting to the main course.

I miss that little friend but - needs must - off we went to the local big box purveyor of all things electronic where I considered the sexy blandishments from about fifteen other options. Zoom this. Closeup that. Megapixels to the max vs.10X zoom. Whatever.

Finally decided to replace my beloved camera with the next iteration of the exact same thing. Canon PowerShot SD4500 IS Digital Elph, whatever that means. While I mourn the passing of my earlier Elph, I welcome the features of this newer model and I hope there will be at least another five years of happy collaboration. I think of it simply as "Elf," a small, friendly being possessed of a certain amount of magic. I kept the old leather case that has housed two generations of Elphs so far; I hope the new Elf will be happy living there.