And you thought Paris Hilton was a photo whore?

My image editing software tells me how many pictures I have on my computer....you'll never guess how many?

35,021 total pictures

Here's the breakdown, by year:
1998 - 10
1999 - 5
2000 - 26
2001 - 25
2002 - 88
2003 - 5303
2004 - 2532
2005 - 10,776
2006 - 9250
2007 ytd - 7459

I got my first digital camera in 1998, it was a Sony Mavica - you know the one with the 3.5" floppy disk, it was bigger than a brick and such a bitch to carry around, but hey, you could take your picture and put it right in your computer. How much more instant satisfaction could you get?

Basically it sucked and I never used it.

In 2003 I got my first digital camera, as part of a Digital Camcorder, it was just a few months later that I realized I liked taking pictures more than I did video and bought my first Olympus the metal clad Stylus 300. As Andi would say "I heart that camera"

Earlier this year, after my Stylus was getting on it's last legs, I knew that I would have to soon consider buying a new camera, so I started testing.

I went through 3 different cameras before I found the one I wanted, I tried Olympus again - didn't like the pictures, I tried a Kodak with a 12x zoom - I lurved it, but it was way to big to fit in my pocket, so I finally found the Sony, which I love, it has some great features and takes fabulous pictures.

Oh yeah and I bought a "big" camera, a DSLR, as well an Olympus E-500 - which I am totally totally in love with.

So if this year keeps on the same track as I've gone so far, I may surpass 20,000 pictures this year!

How many pictures do you have on your computer?

Elvis has left the building

By the time I came around Elvis had already left the building, he died when I was 8 years old. So even though I have no active memory of Elvis, I do know who he is.

So, a few weeks ago, actually right after I got back from vacation, I decided that I needed a new camera.

Although I love my camera, it was almost four years old and I was tired of all the kids laughing at me when I pulled it out. The first thing people would say is "oh that's pretty beat up." "Yeah it goes everywhere I go," was my typical response and it was true. I've fallen in love with photography over the last few years.

Growing up I would play around with cameras but never did anything because it was such an expensive hobby...and it took forever. Even then I had no patience and photography meant WEEKS of waiting - literally!

In college I had 35SLR that I had no idea to use, but it was a pretty camera. Again, it took weeks to get results, still no fun.

Fast Forward to 2003 when I got my first digital camera! Finally, instant gratification! Why did technology take so long to catch up?

I've been doing my research online but decided to pay a visit to my local Best Buy to touch everything.

I have a love/hate relationship with Best Buy - as I'm sure you do as well - I like going there but the people working there are just plain out of it. But then what do you really expect for minimum wage?

I'm looking at cameras and I'm approached by the blue shirted kid. "hi, how are you?" and then he actually waited for a response......."I'm Elvis, is there anything I can help you with?" I wanted to snap "No, thank you I'm just looking" but I decided to ask him a question...well let's just say that we talked for a few and I ended up buying a much more expensive camera than I was looking for along with a service plan.

Now before you say "Well Geeze Michael, you fell for the oldest trick in the book, you're a fool, you deserve what you got."

But you know what.....the kid actually knew what he was talking about. He knew a few things I didn't and I felt confident in my purchase. I hadn't planned on buying a camera because I had just missed an 18-month free interest program they were running so I had resigned myself to waiting for the next one...but I tried something and it worked.

I knew that I was going to buy a Service Plan with the camera because honestly it's the only service plan I know I will use. See Best Buy covers the battery on Digital Cameras, and they'll give you a new one every year....for free....no shipping...nothing. I bought the Service Plan on my last camera and every year I got a new battery. The Service Plan cost $59 and I got $240 worth of batteries out of them.

I told Elvis that I wanted to buy the camera but I really wanted to take advantage of the 18-month interest free program I had just missed so I was gonna wait on it. So I asked if he would extend the offer. "Were you going to buy anything else today?" "I was thinking about the Service Plan?" Eyes lit up.....I asked him a few questions, made sure they still did the battery thing and said I'd probably get that when I bought the camera...."Let me go talk to my manager for a sec." "Ok, I'm gonna go look at some movies, I'll come back in 10 minutes" knowing that he'll have an answer in 4.

When I got bored of looking at movies, I walked back to the camera department but didn't see Elvis anywhere. There was another guy who tried to jump on me and I said "I'm working with Elvis." "Oh he'll be right back," was his curt reply. So I jokingly said "Oh has Elvis left the building?" to which he said "No, he's right over there." as though he were ordering a cheeseburger at McDonald's.

God, I'm so old.

And yes, I got my new camera....but I'm so old.