Steve Mills and his wife have one daughter. They previously owned two coffee/ice cream shops, currently operate an internet sales company and teach classes, but his primary job involves the paper industry worldwide. Hobbies and interests lie in gardening, photography, recorded music and of course, their pets.

True Ramblings of a rambling mind

Posted Sunday, January 31, 2010, at 10:12 AM

Just have to read the column to find out about this one.

All this snow has me thinking about a trip I have made for 12 years to the frozen North. This year the frozen North came to me so no need to go.

That is not actually why I used to go to Montreal at this time of year. It was for a Paper Industry trade show, but it has been dying a slow decline and this year it will lose one more attendee.

The cold, snow and thoughts of Montreal triggered another memory of a business associate from Quebec who passed on last week. It was not an easy passing for my friend and his family but I am SURE he is having a GOOD time in Heaven now. Likewise, I would bet they are glad to see him because he always lit up the room when he was there.

Thinking of Pierre made me think of French food and got my culinary creativity up, so I cooked French toast for breakfast (with a few "special" ingredients). I had already eaten the first batch by the time Deb and her mother got up, so I cooked another batch for them. They did not take my temperature, but you could tell they were wondering what was going on.

This morning's sun on the snow had my photographic juices going too so when I headed out to feed the drop-off cats, I carried my camera with great anticipation. It was as beautiful as I expected but oops, I forgot to charge the battery. That did not happen with my old film cameras. The meter battery might die, but I could still use the old brain for settings and shoot anyway.

While this camera has a 5X zoom it is no where near capable of taking the close-ups I am used to with the film camera so I tried an experiment I read about on the internet, shooting through an existing 35mm lens. Something was missing in the translation I guess 'cause all I got was the picture seen above. Interesting, but not what I had in mind.

The sun is so bright on the snow that being out there was actually painful, plus the screen was so hard to see that I just pointed at what I though I wanted and shot. While I love the portability of this camera and it is great for snapshots, I am severely limited in creativity through the lens, or at least the kind I was used to with film.

Of course being digital, I can bring it back in to the computer and get creative like I used to in the darkroom, without the chemicals ad restrictions of working in the dark. Plus, the software makes difficult processes so easy.

So what is the bottom line when comparing digital and film? I won't know until I work with a full blown, professional DSLR, which may never happen, so....... the jury will stay out, for now.

We had about 5.5 inches of snow up here on the hill and I believe we would not be able to feed the cats or get back home without the 4 wheel drive truck. One of our neighbors on another hill has no tire marks or steps in their driveway so they are either tucked in for the duration or went somewhere to wait out the freeze.

Well, I have plenty of time to work on eBay and other computer stuff, so I guess I will get to work. We hope everyone is able to stay warm.