Ducks Unlimited

I mean, who knew I had this new skill. Not me. Never. I used to own a Kodak flash-bulb kind of camera when I was 6 years old and took it to Disneyland to hunt down Mickey Mouse (yes, I did find him but my parents did not find me).

Then, after years of looking at family birthday cake blow-outs and Christmas trees...I felt ill. I needed my own shots, my own subjects, pictures on any day except a 'special day'.

So, I went to the local Drug Store which has fliers which announced the sale of digital cameras. No, I did not know what digital meant but, I knew everyone was doing it. Sadly, many didn't do it well.

I saw things differently. I saw the beak of a lonely duck and thought, 'this is art'. So, I pulled out my Visa and purchased the camera. It was not a fancy model and only had an 18 X's zoom. What did I care. I just tossed the directions on how to use your new camera, and all the other paper work into a file and decided to head to the Lagoon just blocks from my house.

I was like a kid in a candy store. I looked through the wee box and saw so many possibilities..and then, I SAW THE DUCKS! Oh yes, there were hundreds of sitting ducks just waiting for me to capture their essential beauty and ear-mark my new hobby (later- ? career) as a freelance photographer.

Duck Day Afternoon with my Nikon. I rushed to the drugstore and had the fat little woman behind the counter show me the 21 steps to download pictures and order prints. I had a bead of sweat falling from my small side-burn as I waited the 3 hours for development.

Then, I returned to the store and picked up my first prints. I saw small yellow corners clipped to some of my DUCK PHOTOS which said, 'GREAT SHOT, YOU SHOULD BLOW THIS UP!' ..that's when I knew I had the 'IT FACTOR FOR PHOTOGRAPHY' and, to this day, it only gets better!