For psychological reasons that no one has fully fathomed yet (or maybe they have, and I just never looked it up,) we get some kind of satisfaction, even a little thrill, from meaningless numbers that nevertheless form a pattern. In that vein, I am letting you know that this is the 2,222nd post on the ol’ Walkabout blogoblob here. I just popped one of those little holiday crackers in celebration. We already celebrated the 2,000th post back in March, so don’t bother trying to tell me that I missed a better one.
Naturally, the only meaning this has is that we use a decimal/base 10 numbering system – in binary it’s the 100010101110th (or is that the 100010101110st?) post, so… yeah.
But anyway, to recognize this remarkable accomplishment, I decided to be a little thematic – only I was thwarted slightly in that regard, so we’re doing bookends instead. Thus we have the 2,222nd photos taken with the first digital camera that I’ve used, and the most recent.
May 23rd, 2004, using the Sony F717 that had been loaned to me before it went on to its new owner. I was making the most of it, and shot over 3,300 images in less than two months. This is an unidentified amphipod, only a handful of millimeters long, in my casual saltwater aquarium. Yes, those are algae spots – it was due for a cleaning, but I had the opportunity when the little scud paused against the glass.
February 21st, 2020, with the Canon 7D that I presently use, the aftermath of the last decent winter storm that we’ve had. For the record, the most recent frame that I shot with that body, as of this writing, is the 27,927th, so that was fairly early in the tenure for that camera.
I was going to do the 2,222nd image for each body I’ve used (add four more,) but some of those were simply deleted for not passing muster, and some were personal, so I just did the first and last. But those are still well away from the start of my photography, so for giggles, I’m adding another.
This is the 2,222nd slide in my stock drawer, which doesn’t mean anything because they’re not in chronological order, but by category – this is the best I can do. This series doesn’t have a timestamp, so I’m guessing somewhere around 1998 or ’99, mostly because I switched to slide film not long before. I know this was in a wildlife park not terribly far from Atlanta, but that’s all I can recall. Not even sure of the species – not domestic, anyway. I do know this was with the Canon Elan IIe though, my film workhorse until I got the EOS 3 in 2005, I think.
How many cameras have I used? (No one asks.) I doubt I could give an accurate count. The first was either a Polaroid Land camera or some unidentified 126 film box camera, both from garage sales somewhere around the age of ten (so, the seventies.) Got a little Palmatic 110 camera for christmas one year, I think when I was thirteen. Got my first 35mm (the impossible-to-find Wittnauer Challenger) when I was fifteen, rummage sale find. Had a handful of Olympus bodies and a Minolta, before finally getting the Elan IIe as my first ‘serious’ (and brand new, except for the 110) camera, likely 1997. Then the EOS 3 and an Elan 7, as well as a Canon Pro90 IS as my first digital. Digital bodies progressed through the original Digital Rebel (300D), the Canon 30D, a T2i (which allowed video,) and finally the 7D. Add in a Mamiya 645E and 1000J. A Graflex Graphic View II. A couple of esoteric models like a Minolta 16 ‘spy camera’ which I recently replaced after having lost the original years ago (plus the Soviet counterpart, a Kiev 30,) obtained solely because I like them – not sure I could even locate film to fit them anymore. And I’m probably forgetting a few. Mind you, I’m not a collector or even concerned about getting new and better bodies – most of these were used. I’ve just been shooting for a while. Want me to dig out the 2,222nd negative in the books? I can, ya know…