Dispatches: K-Zoo
A long time ago, in a state far, far away….I had no idea how a “digital image” was made, nor did i get how it was supposed to go from inside the camera to inside the computer or in print. I just couldn’t wrap my mind around it.
The date: Just before Christmas, December 2001
The location: Kalamazoo, Michigan
Back then, I’m working for a company called Pharmacia & Upjohn (or maybe we were already just Pharmacia by then…I don’t remember). Doing some travel (some of the first of my young corporate career) working on their annual report project, just like I’m working on one now but for another company.
I’m in Kalamazoo with a photographer and his assistant. We’re in town to do some shoots for that book, maybe some employee photography as well.
Me and the photog are out looking for breakfast. It’s cold. We’re in downtown Kalamazoo, a very young Flo the Pig is with us, and we see this huge Santa Clause.
The photog says “Hey, over there. Let me try out this new camera Nikon gave me to test out. It’s called a Coolpix.”
I don’t remember what version of the Nikon Coolpix it was. I doubt it was this one, though I bet it didn’t have more than 3 megapixels (as evidenced by these photos) running through it.
So, I saw him take the photo…I saw it on the LCD screen….I just didn’t get it. I didn’t get how, now that the image was in camera, how it was supposed to go anywhere else.
Obviously I didn’t know anything about UBS cords or card readers or anything like that. Heck, my photographic arsenal at that time consisted of the latest black-and-yellow Kodak disposable camera that I would snap pics with, then drop off the local drugstore for processing.
Yep, we’ve come a long way baby. Both of us have..
That photog testing out that latest Nikon “digital camera”?
Joe McNally.
I then had to snap a photo of Joe with that really high-techy camera he had. Made him hold Flo for what may be Flo’s first travel portrait, ever.
Fast forward to 2011 and his Guide To Digital Photography has it’s very own app from LIFE magazine. And a couple of weeks ago, despite a raging blizzard in New York, Joe appeared on Good Morning America to talk about his new book.
Check out the interview and read a wonderful excerpt here.
Joe is now in kicking it and flashing it Hong Kong, on a whirlwind Asia tour.
That’s a LONG way from knockin’ around in downtown Kalamazoo, Michigan, with a guy toting a disposable camera and a pig.
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