Home Opinion Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: My Stoopid Phone

Mine Creek Revelations by Louie Graves: My Stoopid Phone

1990
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FIFTY YEARS’ PHOTOS. I probably took my first photo for the newspaper in the mid ’60s when I was home on leave from the Navy.

On my first USN cruise to Japan I had bought a real fancy Nikon camera and brought it back duty-free for my father. Before that he used a camera called a ‘Speed Graphic,’ which used large negative plates instead of 35-mm rolls of film. I think he taught me to use the Speed Graphic, and then I bought my own camera. It was  a Nikon but not nearly as fancy as his.

In 50 years of photos I have taken very few really good ones like the ones our John Balch seems to come up with each week. My few good ones were due more to good luck rather than to skill.

I’ve watched as cameras have evolved. I think pretty soon we’ll be able to just ‘think’ a picture. Well, maybe I exaggerate.

I wish I had a dollar for every person in the last 25 years who has approached me to buy their slightly used cameras. They had gotten the photography bug, bought equipment on the spur of the moment, and then took a few pictures before putting the camera and associated lenses, tripods, flash attachments, etc., aside. There was even one guy who told me that his first and only roll of fill was still in the camera. Wow, that’s getting tired of a hobby pretty quickly!

Film cameras gave way to digital cameras that stored the picture on a computer chip. The digital cameras got better and better.

So, I put aside my 35-mm single lens reflex cameras and got a digital camera.

Then, early digital cameras went into dusty storage on my desk.

Now I take pictures with my cell phone. The photos are actually better quality than the ones taken with those discarded cameras.

There is no more darkroom work, and that is a huge advantage. I’ve had rolls of film ruined when someone blundered into the darkroom at the wrong time. Once, my toddler daughter pulled a roll of exposed film out of the container. It was a roll of film from a poultry festival here. Lucky for me, my wife had also taken pictures, and she didn’t leave her roll of film where a curious child could get to it.

It’s so easy now. Just point and shoot. Well, maybe I exaggerate.

I still take lousy pictures. And sometimes I push the wrong ‘button.’

Sunday night I tried to take a picture of that walker, Erik Bendl, who was waltzing a large blue globe through our town to raise awareness of diabetes. I had the bright idea of posing him in the darkness beside a highway sign on South Main Street. I thought the phone’s ‘flash’ would illuminate the man and his globe and the highway sign.

Stupid Louie.

My pics of the walker are totally black except for the reflected image of the highway sign. Lucky for me, our town’s singing Methodist minister ‘shared’ with me a pic of Mr. Bendl which a member of his flock had sent. You can find that pic and a short article elsewhere in this newspaper. (UPDATE: We’ve already changed the Bendl photo)

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ANYONE ELSE tired of Alabama football winning everything? Honestly, if they played now I’d even root for Texas. Saturday night I knew it would be the kiss of death if I rooted for Georgia to beat Bama, but I couldn’t help myself. You see how that turned out?

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WHATTA VOICE. The regular a capella song-singing at the Nashville Rotary Club’s Wednesday meeting has taken a new dimension since Rev. Daniel Kirkpatrick joined the club. Rev. Kirkpatrick is the new pastor of First United Methodist Church here and he is in possession of a fine, fine baritone voice.

Last week he sang in Little Rock at the annual presentation of Handel’s ‘Messiah.’ In supporting roles were the Arkansas Choral Society and the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra.

A delegation from here went up to LR to enjoy.

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THINGS I LEARNED from opening (and believing) email: “Dreamt” is the only English word that ends in the letters “mt.”

Back in the day when piano students gave recitals on Sunday afternoons at the First Baptist Church, there was a popular song played often by budding pianists: “I Dreamt I Dwelt in Marble Halls.”

Dreamt and dwelt are past tense words, and I’d explain more but I don’t want you to think I can so easily get fixated upon small details. You might say: “Louie dwelt upon past tense, and that night he dreamt about it.”

I apologize, but Miss Mary Sue would be laughing by now.

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WORD GAMES. Another set of triplets: Healthy, Wealthy and Wise. I’ve heard that all three go to bed early and get up early, too.

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HE SAID: “There are basically two types of people. People who accomplish things, and people who claim to have accomplished things. The first group is less crowded.” Mark Twain, pen name for an American author

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SHE SAID: “There certainly does seem a possibility that the detective story will come to an end, simply because the public will have learnt all the tricks.” Dorothy L. Sayers, crime writer

Dorothy, did you notice how closely learnt, dwelt and dreamt are related?

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SWEET DREAMS, Baby

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