Sometimes Things Work Out Exactly As Planned

I was intrigued by the idea of a remote control for my camera. Pair that with a tripod (so the camera can be adjusted to see what I want it to see) and there could be a whole lot of fun to happen with that.

I saved my Swagbucks money to get Amazon gift cards, and saved my Amazon gift cards until I had enough to get a remote control for the camera and a tripod to make effective use of that remote. Free rocks.

While I saved to get what I needed, er, wanted for free, I was wondering exactly what kind of fun I was going to have with a remote. It's not like I could set up my camera 25' away from the family at Disney and remotely take a photo of us together in front of the castle. I mean, I could, but the new owner of the camera would spend a lifetime enjoying the photo, and not me. Same goes for the park, the zoo, the Anywhere Public... So really, I could take a picture of the entire family in front of our Christmas tree. And at Easter. Or Thanksgiving or New Year's Day. But really, I don't see it happening much as a "I'll set this up in the yard and get random shots of me and the kids playing together" because when are we actually going to stay within the camera's range?

"Oooh, look, Luke! It's your feet! I can tell because you're wearing the unmatched socks today."

So while I waited for my fun to arrive, my enthusiasm diminished just a bit.

And then the box came, and I excitedly set things up and started taking pictures of myself from across the room and showing them to everyone in the house who studiously avoided the deranged mama and her new fascination when they saw it going down in the first place. They were as thrilled as you can imagine them to be. Maybe even less so. I think I heard laughter when I turned my back.

But the other day I had a genius inspiration. I needed to take pictures of puppies to update the website, and taking pictures of puppies is akin to taking pictures of toddlers. They sit still for .173 seconds, they always turn to face away from the camera, and they will lay down and have a fit if the camera continues to hassle them. It's realllllly fun. But if I set up my camera on the tripod and used the remote, I could play with the puppies, pose them just so, and quickly snap a picture the right way the first time.

For once, a genius idea worked exactly as I planned it.