I try to keep up with technology. I consider myself somewhat computer literate. I have a smartphone that challenges me but mostly does what I want it to do. I use copiers, printers, and ATM machines. I can get our TV changed to the DVD or VCR player so my grandkids can watch their favorite videos. I can take pictures....well maybe that is an exaggeration.
Megan and I purchased a camera together last year. She assured me that I didn't have to worry about settings and all I had to do was push the button and it would take a good picture. I thought I could handle that. Things went pretty well. I would snap pictures and I learned how to transfer them to my computer and either post them on Facebook or save them in a file for future use. So far so good.
Of course my favorite people to take pictures of are my grandkids. They grow so fast and I like to have updated pictures of them so I often have the camera with me when we are together and try to take a few pictures of them. Getting them to cooperate is another matter. Lydia doesn't sit still and Alexis likes to ham it up for the camera usually resulting in ridiculous pictures. Mark stares in horror at the flash and doesn't smile. Nevertheless, I get enough to keep the background picture on my computer current and to display on Facebook, at work, and on my basement wall.
The other week Steve and I were at Jay and Kristen's house keeping all three children while they enjoyed a night out. Steve was holding a sleeping Mark and I was entertaining the girls. We decided to watch a video. I wasn't familiar with how their DVD/VCR worked but was quite proud of myself when the picture came on the screen and the music started. However, it was too quiet and I fumbled to find the volume button, hit the wrong one and the screen went blank. I tried everything but couldn't get it to start up again. Lydia patiently sat on the sofa twirling her hair and sucking her finger but Alexis stood beside me and offered advice. Finally in exasperation she put her hands on her hips and said, "Grandma! You're not a very good grandma!" Holding back the laughter, I agreed with her and went and got good grandpa to fix the problem.
While the video was playing, I decided to take some pictures of the girls. I got out the camera, focused on one or both girls and snapped. The camera acted weird. Every time I pushed the button a light kept flashing for a long time. I thought it was the flash but couldn't figure out why it stayed on. When I looked on the camera at the pictures I had taken, they seemed okay, so I just shrugged it off and took a few more pictures before putting the camera away.
A couple of days later when I transferred the pictures to my computer I was astonished to see that I had taken a chopped up video of the girls. I couldn't believe my eyes. I don't even know how to take a video and had never done it before. How did that happen? That evening I told Megan about it and showed her the video. I said to her, "How did I do that and how could I be that stupid?" She got this funny look on her face and then started laughing. Apparently she had been playing with the camera and had set it to something called "movie digest." On this setting it automatically takes a 3 second video every time you take a picture. She had forgotten to change the setting back and that is why I ended up with a comical stop-and-start video of my granddaughters. Oh the joys of being over 50 in this technological age.
Enjoy.
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