Forgotten, Lost, Stolen, Broken

I have a camera curse.

It all started when I was a sophomore in high school. I went to France for a 3 week exchange program, and my parents gave me their new camera. “Don’t lose it,’ my mom said, knowing my track record with keeping track of…well…anything. “I won’t,” I promised. And I made it all 3 weeks without misplacing it, but as I arrived back in America, I left the damn thing on the plane. We never got it back. That was the beginning of the curse.

Then those throw away camera’s were invented, and for years, I just used those. They were fine. If I lost one, no real guilt….or so I thought. When we moved to Minnesota, I had one of these cameras holding pictures of Cameron when he was only a few weeks old and the last pictures I took with my friends in New Jersey. On our second day here, we went furniture shopping, and I put my backpack/diaper bag down to checkout some of the couches…I forgot to pick the bag back up. While we were still in the store, someone stole my bag! I was a little upset about losing my glasses and my license, but I literally cried about losing the memories preserved in the camera.

I immediately went out and bought another throw away camera, and continued to do so for awhile, until I went to visit a friend. He shared some of his pictures, which he took with a really nice 35 mm camera…the kind with one of those large telephoto lenses, and I was hooked. I wanted to not just take pictures of my baby…I wanted to take GOOD ones. So I bought a similar style camera, costing a couple hundred bucks.

But during one of our trips…I think to beautiful Atlantis in the Bahamas, Melvin and I were walking around the resort with Cameron (who was only 9 months), and the camera curse struck again. I had the camera sitting in the indented “tray” on top of the stroller. As we were walking, I hit a bump or something, and the camera fell, crashing to the sidewalk, breaking the battery door. Because of the way it broke, I couldn’t take anymore pictures throughout our entire trip.

I finally was able to get the camera fixed, and I was back in action, snapping photos of my baby boy at any chance I could get. Then we went on a trip to Florida, and I was studying or napping or something while Melvin took Cameron (and the camera) to the pool. He remembered to bring home Cameron, but left the camera behind. That was never to be seen by us again. This time it wasn’t my fault, but I’m sure the curse had something to do with it.

So we bought another nice camera, which has served us well through the years.

But for Christmas one year, my mom gave me a digital camera. I have to admit that it sat in my closet for over a year before I finally decided to figure out how to use it. I wanted to be able to instantly add pictures to the blog I had started. So I packed away my nice “film” camera, and went digital. But the week before Ella was born, I couldn’t find the camera anywhere. This was also about the time that Max used the trashcan as a hiding place for anything he could get his hands on. I can’t prove that he trashed it, but we never did find the camera.

So it was back to the film camera, and using anyone else’s digital camera who was visiting us over the holidays. Until I purchased myself a nice Kodak digital camera. It was a couple hundred dollars, but worth it. Except…I forgot about the curse. And less than 2 months later, while out for a walk, Max didn’t like that I had put the camera in the stroller seat he was refusing to sit in. So he tossed it, quite vehemently, directly onto the concrete sidewalk.

Even though I knew I shouldn’t have, I immediately went out and bought myself another one. I called it my mother’s day gift (but no one else knew about it!). And that camera lasted through the summer, into the beginning of Fall. While at a park one day, the camera strap slid off my shoulder as I bent down to pick up something (or someone), and the camera smashed onto the ground. Most of the park is grass, rubber, or sand, but I managed to do this directly on the concrete. Again, my camera was no good. I did manage a few weeks later to get it to take pictures, but the focus doesn’t work when zooming, and the exposure isn’t quite right anymore.

So I was back to my film camera. I do love it. I love that I get physical prints to put in an album. I love how I can zoom in and how clear the pictures are. And I especially love how it sounds when the shutter opens and closes to take the photo…like I’m a real, professional photographer. But it has it’s “negatives.” (ha ha). For one, I can’t instantly see that the kids’ eyes were closed, or they had moved their heads or the lighting was completely wrong. Secondly, I hate to “waste” film on some silly pictures I might take that’s just for my blog...and nothing I’d ever really put in a photo album…like a spilled bowl of cereal, maker scribbled all over the floor, etc. And then I often take photos I don’t really want or need just to use up the film so that I can get it developed to use on my blog.

But at least I had a camera to use. Except two days ago, when getting ready to head to a nursing home where my mom friends were meeting to parade the kids around in their Halloween costumes, the curse came back. I had put the camera in the top of the diaper bag/backpack, which was only held together by a small piece of Velcro. My bag fell off my shoulder when I bent down to pick up Ella, and the camera came tumbling out, right onto the ceramic tile….breaking the battery door.

So now, as we head out to Orlando, Florida tomorrow, I will be capturing our exciting family moments with either a digital camera that doesn’t focus well, or a nice 35 mm, that has a broken battery door that I must hold shut with one hand, while trying to focus with the other hand and somehow push down the capture button. I’m sure I’ll get many horrible shots to share!

Eventhough my husband is forbidding me to do so, I still want to buy another camera. But I'm almost afraid to for fear of what the curse will cause next....like it might blow up in my face or something.

Any suggestions on how to break the curse?