Shutterbugs!

In which the crittergators take control of the camera!

Yes, those intrepid crittergators are playing around with my Pentax K-1000, a non-digital SLR and the standard portrait lens it came with. I bought it in 1986 for about $150 (which seemed such a lot of money at the time), and it was my go-to camera for about 22 years.

Take a little stroll with me back through time, my friends. Ah, do you remember when . . .

Photographers had to actually purchase FILM (at about $3 to $4 per roll) - in advance! - and carry it around, and change the film when the roll stopped? And do that somewhere out of the dust and light and bustle to keep from getting dirt in the camera . . .

And we had to pay for development (around $4 to $5 per roll) before we could even SEE the pictures?

And I'd send the film away to York Photo by mail, and get the pictures back in a week if I was lucky (and only if I checked the "expedited" box and paid a quarter extra)?

And we'd drive from central Pennsylvania to Florida each winter - my husband and myself - with about $125 each in our pockets, and maybe a total of 8 rolls of film. And I'd think it was a LOT LOT LOT of pictures when I brought back all those rolls of film used up and ready to be developed?

The math: 8 rolls of film x 24 pics per roll, but in each pack of Kodak ASA 100 film, there would be ONE roll of 36 and I'd save those for vacation because they were LONGER. And so I would return from a week's Florida vacation with 200 to 300 shots. Ooh, such a LOT of pictures!

And, well . . . 200 to 300 shots . . . that is the number of pictures I sometimes take now in just 20 to 30 minutes, often in the morning when I'm on my way to work. *head-shake, thoughtful look* Lads and lassies, oh, how the times have changed.

The song: Simon and Garfunkel, Kodachrome.

P.S. Longtime readers will remember that the crittergators got behind the lens once before. It was . . . maybe not so great, actually . . .