Acquisition: Olympus XA-2

It finally arrived from Camera Traders in Victoria.

"Finally" is not quite the right word. I waited with impatience for it. Call it anticipation.

The question is why? Why did I need this camera?

Partly, I have had to sublimate my desire to shoot lately. I'm writing and the work keeps me from being out in the world taking pictures.

But hopefully, with the weather warming, I'll be back on the streets, shooting more and collecting less.

Plus I need to say a word about my penchant for automatic point and shoots and viewfinder cameras. My attraction to them is based on, and this is frightening to admit, I don't want to know what I'm shooting.

This is not to say I don't care to compose and take an active and creative role in making a photograph. But I need some elements to be out of my control.

I'm not a wild shooter. I don't usually fire and hope for the best. But I also don't preconceive my images in the studied manner Ansel Adams exhorts photographers to use.

I see a situation. I'm drawn to it and I want to take a picture in that instance. Or engage in that person photographically. Sometimes, I simply want their image.

I'll see the quality I need from the subject and try to obtain it but never know what the answer is. How does one get the quality, the special something from the subject? I leave it to the camera.

Some cameras seem better than others to do it.

One thing I dislike about digital is I constantly look at the LCD to see if I've taken the image I hoped for.

It takes me away from the moment. Perhaps I'm more interested in taking photographs than making pictures. Auto compact cameras do that for me. If it shoots wide, up close, in focus, witha flash and through a yellow filter and 2 stops over exposed, I'm a happy camper.

I'll try to do a better job of explaining in the near future.