Left Coast Observatory

Have you ever tried to describe a photograph you've never seen to a stranger over the phone?

I have.

I submitted one of those disposable cameras to my local grocery store for photo-finishing. A week later, still no prints. No one at the store seemed able to either find them or tell me where they were.

After calling the actual service that does the work, we were able to finally discover the problem: the envelope I filled out was empty by the time it got to them. The self-seal on it had come loose and the camera had dropped out.

They must get a lot of these because they still haven't been able to match my film to me after nearly a month.

How is it done? I'm supposed to describe the pictures I took to someone on the other end who is looking at the pictures. I'm not sure how long we've even had this camera, or what we took snaps of. I'm pretty sure about the last few, though.

So we got a sample of what they thought I was describing, and although it was close it wasn't spot on. With any luck the next batch they give me will be the ones.

That's okay, soon I'll have a digital camera and will be able to do it myself. No more developing fees!