Reflections of the old and in the way

During the past two-and-a-half years I have whittled down the tools of my trade to one semi-serious and several less-serious cameras, a good radio under a roof and on wheels, two laptops (one is a backup on road trips), a desk computer, a semi-serious photo printer and a $50 workhorse Brother laser printer.

The tools of my trade at one time consisted of a couple of dozen saddle horses, a couple of dozen vehicles ranging from dirt bikes to four-wheel-drive eight-bottom-plow pullers, along with semi-serious hand tools, most of which are scattered in northeast Wyoming at sites at which I or family members or our employees worked on something and failed to pick them up. (There is also a hunting knife at every site where I gutted a pronghorn or a deer.)

There came a time, though, when capturing images and reproducing them became my principle income-producing mojo. Tonight, I have had to photograph several screen-shots to aid an internet troubleshooter diagnose my situation.

In 1985, I could have done that, too. If I used, today, the same technology I had at that time for the process of capturing an image and transmitting it to someone else, I could have...

1. Photographed the screen (which, of course, was not a consumer item in 1985),
2. Developed the film, assuming black/white was sufficient (1.5 hours),
3. Chosen and printed three frames (2 hours minimum) on 5x7 paper,
4. Pack and mail prints to recipient (.5-2 hours),
5. Waited for recipient to get it (3-7 days),
6. Talked to recipient on phone after he has seen the prints.
7. Repeated until I began seriously thinking of running a hose from the tailpipe into the passenger cab.

Now, I have several ways to capture and transmit an image within 15 minutes, in color. The principle improvement, today at least, is that I haven't had to wait as long between steps 1 and 7.