Camera

So....here's the story of my lovely Lumix Panasonic DMC-FX07 camera...and the reason I have very few pictures from my Chicago trip.

For almost six months before the Chicago trip in January, my camera had been acting up...turning off and not turning on completely if too cold, more so than it should have been. It seemed to almost be shorting out. Then, the second day in Chicago, the first morning in the Windy City, it happened. I was taking a picture of the seals in the Lincoln Park Zoo when the camera turned off again. I sighed and switched the power off, then on again....and the camera would not turn on at all. Usually the screen would flash on for a minute, then show a faint green pixelated glow. This time, there was nothing. I tried it again. Nothing.
I put the camera in my pants pocket to try and warm it up. It was a very cold day, perhaps it was just too frozen. After hours, still nothing. I recharged both batteries for a day, but still, the camera was lifeless.

I was devastated. I loved my little camera. I had taken it everywhere with me, from Atwood to Edisto Island, Florida, Belize, New York, Georgia, Delaware, Akron, and more. And now, it was gone, lost to an electrical short.
I felt odd without a camera. It wasn't anything too fancy, but it was a wonderful little point and shoot camera, and now I had naught but my memory to take pictures of all I saw. I realized just how lucky I was to have that little camera of mine.

When I got home, I borrowed my brother's camera for a time. It is the exact same model as mine, so it was much like having my little friend, but I still knew that my buddy was dead at home in Akron. After much online searching, my dad was able to find a used version of my camera for sale in Craig's list. We bought it and then took the working insides of the newly bought camera and replaced the dead inner workings of mine. We switched the power, and it lived! My friend was alive once more, thanks to the generosity of another Lumix donating it's vital electrical organs. Thank you other Lumix, you gave me back my little friend, and now we can continue to explore the world through photography!

Here are the last few photos my camera took in Chicago before it went into camera coma.

The diner I had an AMAZING omelet in!

Freezing Birds in Lincoln Park

The last photo: a swimming seal. Then away my camera's life swam with it.