remember 35mm?

In 1981 we bought a 35mm camera. It was expensive for us at the time, but remember those crappy Instamatic snapshots? Yah. Actually, this camera was one of the best things we could have done. I have the most beautiful pictures of our kids growing up--all my most beautiful babies

(Album upon album, a person can begin with album 1, and continue on through album 43. I have three more years to put in albums...that'll keep me busy when I ever get started.)

Anyway, we loved our new camera. It was a manual camera, so we learned to set the f-stop, the shutter speeds, the asa and focus, all that jazz. We had a flash that was also set manually according to distance, but it was often easier to just set the shutter speed to work with the natural light in the room. The pictures looked how it really felt, could almost capture the smell of the air.

A couple years later we bought a telephoto lens for it, and I loved that too. I could sit at the lake and take pictures of the kids all afternoon and they wouldn't even notice me. Zoom in and click.

Okay, well, here's the crazy part, now that I'm used to this little digital camera... with film, we didn't know what we were capturing until later when the film was developed. It was all a surprise. Every time. 36 pictures of what? There often would be one or two fabulous photos and another 10 good pictures, and then 24 pictures of crap--people's backs turned, photos slightly blurry, lots of pictures taken in the split second after the real shot while I tried to focus...

But this is what I want to share with you today. Keep in mind it cost $12 to have a roll of film developed, plus the $3 for the film.... but this surprise still has me laughing 12+ years later.



This guinea pig's name is Patrick, just in case you're wondering.

Kirsten, and the neighbor kid Brennan, did this.


And yes, that's correct. Barbie is not wearing underpants.

When the photographic evidence emerged, we all saw Patrick in a new light. He wasn't the innocent little lettuce-eater we'd imagined. I didn't even know he'd ever left his aquarium full of pine chips. Well, he did, and it looks like tequila might have been involved. love, Val