A Lesson Learned

I learned something yesterday.  In fact, I learned several things.  We drove to Austin (something like 54 miles from here) and visited the Zilker Botanical Gardens and the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.  We both took cameras to capture what we saw.  I used my Canon PowerShot SX40HS, which takes great closeups.  John used our small, older, Canon PowerShot 260HS and his iPhone.

When we are being tourists, we both take lots of pictures which I then download into my computer.  From the many (many, many) photos we take, with lots of duplicate shots of the same thing, I pick out a few to use in my blog.  Because I can do exposure bracketing with my SX40HS (the camera will automatically take photos 1/2 stop either side of the setting that seems best), I often get 3 photos for every time I click the shutter.  Yesterday, I took lots of close-ups of flowers in addition to shots of the larger displays.  I knew I had a lot of editing and deleting to do last night.

After dinner, I downloaded all those pictures.  As always, when I was done, I picked up each camera again and deleted all the photos from the day.  That was a big mistake.  When I went into Picasa on my computer, I had all the photos John had taken with both his cameras.  But mine weren't there!!!  I spent a couple of hours rethinking everything I had done.  Where did I go wrong?  I'm still not sure.  I obviously skipped one step in the download process.

What did I learn?
     It is good that we both take photos, even if there are lots of duplicates.  That is a good back-up for human error.
     I must double check that the photos are  really on my computer hard drive before I delete them from the camera.

But these lessons are really common sense and minor.  As I think back to yesterday and to most of  the times that I take photographs, I realize that I am so focused on the camera and getting the right picture that I am not really experiencing what I see.  I intend to re-experience it when I look at the photos.  But I am really missing the actual experience that way.  I don't take time to appreciate what I am seeing, to let the pictures imprint on my mind.  I see only the camera and I don't see the event or location we are visiting until I get home and see it on the computer.  THAT IS WRONG! 

I hope I have learned the two common sense lessons about taking duplicate photos and double-checking my work.  But more importantly, I intend to really enjoy what we are doing and seeing--while it is going on .  The photos are an extra, allowing me to see it again and share it on the blog, they aren't the reason I am there.  I hope this loss of photos has taught me a little about how to enjoy the life we live, while we are living it.

How about you?  Is this what you experience?