pinata time

the etiquette of taking photographs at parties where one doesn't know more than a couple of the people attending is a hard one...which camera to take? (opt for discreet minimalism)...which people to point one's camera at? (Not easy - I might, indeed, be a relatively successful portrait taker of people whom I know, but when it's people I don't, it always looks like social satire). It's a surprise party - so, yes, of the moment that we all troop upstairs from the basement, clutching the pinata (which oddly, never got smashed) and startle the birthday boy - but for some reason, that just didn't work - I thought I'd pressed the shutter at the crucial moment, but no. So... here's the easy, opt-out option: birthday celebratee (Happy Birthday, Ben!) with Alice.

It was, in any case, a bad-tempered photographic day...I'd selected a photo for Ben - highly pertinent to the "Art of Writing" theme-of-the-year; had it all ready to print - and it wouldn't. Realized that having installed Snow Leopard, I'd somehow disabled the R2880. Tried to reload driver. Tried to reboot driver. Copied photo onto computer that didn't have Snow Leopard. Printer, by now, was not only sulking, but flashing orange lights with a menacing synchronicity. And by then, I was running out of time, badly, and had to write a note to fit in the (rather tasteful) frame - but I felt decidedly let down by high-end technology.