Day 105 ~ Shutterbug

For the past few days I have been walking around my house collecting as many items as I possibly can for The Betty Chin Sale. Betty Chin is this amazing local Mother Teresa/Angel who feeds the homeless. I’ve been feeling the need to really simplify for awhile now, so I have been putting items into the sale box that I never thought I would part with. It’s a very good good thing, but also somewhat bittersweet, because I have decided to donate my father’s camera. He was a great photographer of nature. I have switched to all-digital now, and I’ve just been hanging onto his camera out of nostalgia. I’d rather see it go to help someone than sit in my closet not being used. (My dad would have agreed) As I was taking out the last roll, the film got caught and I had to open the camera and expose it. That’s what I used to make today’s butterfly. I know it's not beautiful, but it got me thinking in new and inventive ways, and that's what matters.

Not to worry, the roll I used wasn’t the last roll of film that my dad shot! I found that one not long after he died. We talked a couple of times a month, and he was always telling me about the peleated woodpecker on his property. He was very excited about this woodpecker, because it was formally thought to be extinct. He kept saying he’d send me pictures, and he never did get around to it. But when I took out that last roll of film, there they were: about a dozen shots of the peleated woodpecker!

*If you live in Humboldt County and would like to attend the sale or donate items, here's the info page: http://www.facebook.com/betty.chin#!/notes/betty-chinn/bettys-garage-sale-fundraiser-saturday-april-2/211241365554843