Cathy Classics by Cathy Guisewite for August 14, 2021

What we need is a device that does everything we need with one push of the button, and then everything we want with just a little more work.

Why pay all the extra for the extras if you won’t even use them.

I have been an avid photographer all my life, used to process and print my own photos. I have a camera with some amazing features, which I will rarely use, because I have to “bone up” on their use for five minutes and the photo opportunity disappears in the meantime. I do absolutely love “burst mode”. However, most really good consumer cameras do have a fully automatic setting and, I have to say, these days it does a better job than settings I would have made 99% of the time. What it does miss I can usually fix in post-processing.

Like mistercatworks I too have been a photographer for most of my life, the last 55 years at least, and used to develop my own black and white pictures. My camera does have a lot of the fancy features and I do use about half of them on a regular basis. I think that is one reason I cannot seem to be able to use a phone to take pictures. Framing a shot with a viewfinder up to your eye (with no sun shining on the screen) braced for steadiness is natural for me – holding a phone at arms length trying to see what I am aiming at is definitely not natural to me. However, so long as you are happy with the pictures you take it does not matter what device you are using.

Time to head out to the block party being held next door. I can smell the pig roasting from here. Nice to be fully vaccinated to enjoy something like this without worry. Have a fun day yourselves.

Part of me wishes cameras were still as simple as they used to be, in the pre-digital days. Of course, the convenience of digital shots is great, so kind of a two-sided coin …

HI, MOM. Hello, “Cathy” Clan.