Chocolate, Minnie?

I mentioned my Aunt Minnie and her habit of seeing into every shop downtown - on every trading day. That was quite true, but her circumstances were different from those in the retail camera trade in Perth. Her downtown was in Missoula, Montana and her needs were a lot more modest than those that beset us now. Just as well - her means were probably restricted by the hard times the country suffered. Still, she did the rounds, and if there was something new commercially, she knew about it before 90% of her neighbours. I liken this to the photography enthusiast who attends to the net each day and reads reviews, columns, advertisements, and forums as fast as they appear. Whether or not Minnie's peregrinations did her good or gave her happiness, I do not know, but the desperation that attends some camera fanciers now makes me nervous of it. Minnie did have a job for a long time in a confectionary factory as, of all things, a chocolate dipper. A person skilled with hand and eye in the making of nut swirls and pralines and whatever. It was a steady job and she was good at it, and I have always thought of it as one of the saddest tales I ever heard. You see the factory had a policy that the employees could eat all the chocolates off the production line that they wished. They couldn't take them home, but they could indulge all they liked at work. Minnie thought it was just wonderful and ate all the chocolate she could... For a week. And then never touched it again in her lifetime. The candy factory management knew what they were doing... The photographic moral of the tale? Well, are you good at taking or making pictures? But have you been taking the same pictures for so long that the joy of seeing them has become like chocolate to Aunt Minnie? But you still need the job or love the art? Well, it is time to change what you do. If not with new gear, then with new behaviour. Time to spend a bit of money on a a camera or lens or invest in your own mind. Time to either learn from reading, learn from other's advice, or go out and find your own electric fence. Time to enroll for some stimulation at Shoot Photography. Attend an evening presentation. Go on a Photo Walk. Take a workshop. Attend a seminar. Also haunt Boffins Bookstore in Williams Street - the block between the malls. You can spend a useful lunch hour there and if you take a good photo book home, you can extend the learning process indefinitely. There are enough monographs, technical books, and art books there to keep you busy all through the GOT season. And when they have their sales, with the big remainder tables, you can score some wicked bargains. Mind you, you can also see why some books get remaindered... Who knows...in time your taste for chocolate - or jelly snakes - or photography - may return.