Since my Printer is a Bitch today...

....I'll take the time to rant a while. Ranting really isn't the proper word...unloading. Yea, I'll unload.

The studio is being forced into a digital photography world. I knew it would happen eventually. Film labs are becoming digital labs. We can still shot with film, if we can get it developed. And if we do have negatives, the digital labs can scan the negatives but the cost will be doubled. Not good.

The computer I work on is very old...we got it in 98 but at the time it was one of the most expensive and fastest of its kind. I think that's why it's lasted so long, plus I baby it. Won't let dad put too many sports games on it. Do maintenance weekly, etc. We've needed a new system for the past couple of years but dad won't hear of it.

Now that he needs a digital camera, he wants a new computer system. Finding one is up to me. He doesn't know anyting about them...or about digital cameras. He went out a few weeks ago and got a book--one of those "Everything you need to know about digital photography" ones. I tried to tell him that the best way to learn about them is to get an inexpensive one and practice using it, while we work on finding the right digital system for us. I firmly believe too much 'generic' information can hurt you in the long run.

No one listens to Turtlette! When I try to talk to him about digital photography, he acts likeI don't know what I'm talking about. When he is misunderstanding something he's read, and I try to correct him, he says I don't know what I'm talking about. Then he calls other photographers and they say exactly what I say and still...I don't know what I'm talking about.

My father is a master at manipulation. Over the last 5 years, he's said I'll run the studio one day. That it will be mine and we need to cultivate it to suit my skills. But he only says these things when he needs me to do something important for him or for the studio. Like a fool, I feel some need to please him. I know it stems from abandonment issues that even though I say are resolved, most likely aren't. So I do what needs to be done and he drops the 'the studio will be yours' act, until he needs to use it again.

My father will be 64 in August. He's wants to invest in a $12,000 digital camera. I would say yes, if it worked with the light system and his filters and lens, because it would cost that much or more to replace it all...but this camera doesn't. Right now, we're at a truce, while I investigate the other costs that will go along with the camera.

It's not escaped my attention that Dad also keeps saying stuff like "You can print the sports packages once I get the digital camera. You can print the prom packages once I get a digital camera...you can..."

Of course when I point out that our printer can't handle that kind of printing, he gives me a look that says you're raining on my parade. I'm trying to be practical. Someone has too.

He has yet to get the fact that since I'll be dealing with the computer and the downloading of images from the camera, etc that we should get a system I can work or at least figure out how to straighten out once he screws it up. That he should consider my opinions and not listen to every Tom Dick and Harry who knows a crumb load of info on digital photography.