My Life in Pictures: A Canon Love Story

Before I decided to dive into the world of non-profits and fund development I worked as a journalist. And as any good journalist knows the lifeblood of any story lies not just within the words but the photo that accompanies it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. Not for a journalist. We already wrote the words, to me a picture is worth a thousand emotions.  (I know there are not actually a thousand different emotions, but you know what I am going for here so work with me.)
It is the image and the way it is composed that bring out the feelings of the people in the story and the feelings of the person reading it. 

I am getting pretty good as this photography stuff.

Last month I decided to walk on the wild side and relearn to shoot images off of the green automatic setting. Gasp! I swear even my camera was like "Calm down Jennifer, let's not go too far here."

During this course I started to remember what happens when I take the camera off the automatic setting and let my brain do the work. Then your creativity truly comes alive.

While sitting in photography class I looked at my old Canon Rebel. I ran out and bought this camera when I first started working at the Petawawa Post military base newspaper. It took me two years to pay it off but I was in love with it. That was a decade ago. It is now starting to show wear in the areas where I hold it, and I have lost battery chargers are lens caps more than I can count but we are still going strong. 

I recently took it in to be cleaned inside for the first time. When I picked it up the staff member pointed out that it was really dirty and to not let a decade go by before cleaning it again. Oops. 
I replied " Yeah it was probably filled with sand from Panama, Jamaica, and other beaches as it goes everywhere with me."

I finally took a picture of the moon!!!!!

Then I thought about what my camera has actually seen. From vacations and cruises to tropical places, beaches in Jamaica, historic churches in Panama, wine cellars in Napa, it has seen my own wedding, the day Charlotte was born, her Christmas's, baptism and first day of school. Because of my job it has also captured the sadness of a memorial  service for a fallen soldier, the sense of pride in a promotion ceremony and the sheer joy of families when soldiers walk through the door after being overseas. 

It has captured friends and family that we have loved and we have lost.  It has seen me at my best and some times at my worst. Many people would never think of their camera as any more than a piece of equipment and I mean it is but it is also so much more to me. My Canon has been there for ten years and has documented thousands upon thousands of my life moments without fail.  

It is not the most convenient thing to carry- especially on vacations, it is large and bulky but when my mother ask me if I am actually taking that big camera on our next vacation the answer is always yes.

People often say if these walls could talk, well my camera does. In the form of photos printed in newspapers, hanging on my wall, in my scrapbooks, all stories, emotions and memories captured through the lens. I don't know how long my Canon will survive, it has already outlived most equipment pieces in my life, but for now we are getting ready to embark on the next family vacation and my camera will be on the top of my packing list.