The image is all

I hope you have enjoyed some of the pictures I have put on the site. A blog would be a really sad thing without some illustrations. After all it is truly said that one picture is better than a thousand words. You will understand my horror and dismay, then, when I tell you that my trusty little camera breathed its last on Saturday.  The lens assembly jammed and every effort to recall it to duty failed  It just sat there, its lens sticking out like a dog`s tongue, and nothing I could do made any difference.
   You may say that it was not the end of the world. I am not a well-equipped photographer and the item in question is an old Fujifilm Finepix with only (only!) 5.1 Megapixells. A compact camera then but I have taken some 4000 shots with it and would have continued happily. I think it is often the photographer rather than his equipment that is the crucial factor in a good shot. Did you hear the story of a photographer giving an exhibition of his work who was approached by an author who remarked ` What an excellent camera you must have to take such fine photos.`  The irritated photographer riposted `What a fine pen you must have to write such good books`
   I would have liked to replace my trusty Finepix with a similar model and chose a compact by the same firm. However, though it was similar, technology had moved on and provided my new friend with some new features, some of which may serve when I get used to them,but which nearly drove me crazy at first. It recognises faces.. Well I can do that, I know a face when I see one!  It was set to a mode which automatically chooses between loads of different settings. However it seemed to have difficulty in deciding.. well, will it be the portrait mode, no lets try the night setting with flash, without flash... As it havered it made a whirring noise which was irritating in itself and promised a quick drain on the batteries. I researched in the instruction manual (or I would have done if there had been one. I had to bring it up from a CD before I could ) and succeeded in disabling the face recognition and changed the scene recognition for a more normal automatic mode in which the camera seems much happier.
  It may be thought from the above that I am not happy with the camera. No, indeed now I have adjusted it to my taste I am finding it easy to use and giving at least as good results as its predecessor. Perhaps it`s just I am an old stick-in the-mud, who finds it difficult to adjust to change.  But I will get there in the end.

   Bye for now!