{"id":390049,"date":"2026-01-25T17:55:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:55:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390049\/"},"modified":"2026-01-25T17:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-25T17:55:11","slug":"i-found-an-old-compact-camera-in-the-closet-when-i-powered-it-on-i-started-crying-this-20-year-old-point-and-shoot-taught-me-a-lesson-on-grief","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/390049\/","title":{"rendered":"I found an old compact camera in the closet. When I powered it on, I started crying. This 20-year-old point-and-shoot taught me a lesson on grief"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a photographer, I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that some photographs bring me to tears. But recently, it wasn\u2019t a photograph but an old compact camera<\/a> that brought me to tears \u2013 a 20-year-old 6MP Canon<\/a> compact camera, to be exact.<\/p>\n

I lost my grandmother to cancer in 2023. A few months later, I lost my best friend to a cancer that she wasn\u2019t even old enough to get the routine tests for.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The loss was a double whammy that left me floundering in so much grief that, when I inherited some of my grandmother\u2019s art supplies and her old point-and-shoot, I shoved them in a box in the closet, not yet ready to face them.<\/p>\n

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Some time later, I realized that the old compact \u2013 a Canon PowerShot A540, which was introduced in early 2006 \u2013 still had a memory card inside. A few days ago, I slid some new AA batteries inside, took a deep breath, and powered the old camera on.<\/p>\n

I had to roll back 20 years to set the time and date stamp on the camera, but it still functions as it did at launch. I pressed the playback button and scrolled through years of photographs that brought tears to my eyes.<\/p>\n

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\"The
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(Image credit: Hillary K. Grigonis \/ Future)<\/p>\n

The camera was full of memories that I shared with my grandmother, including a photo of myself and my then-boyfriend, who is now my husband.<\/p>\n

That old compact camera held old photos of my cousins, my aunts and my uncles. It held snapshots of my grandparents’ farm, where I spent my childhood playing hide-and-seek with my cousins and attempting to wrangle feral kittens.<\/p>\n

The best camera deals, reviews, product advice, and unmissable photography news, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

But the camera also housed memories that were not mine, but my grandmother\u2019s. The camera is a tool that shows others our perspective without words and, with that old camera, I was able to see what my grandmother saw on a cruise to Alaska, on trips to the beach and on days in her own garden.<\/p>\n

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\"The\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Hillary K. Grigonis \/ Future)<\/p>\n

The camera is the closest piece of technology to a time machine. I can\u2019t go back in time and have a conversation with my grandmother, but I can hold the same camera that she did and see photographs from her perspective.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t go back in time and hug my best friend, but I can rewatch the video that I have of her giggling while scooting down a snowy hill on the last trip we took together.<\/p>\n

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My grandmother wasn\u2019t a photographer, but she was a painter. I once gifted her a print of mine that she told me she admired on the same Christmas that she gifted me a painting inspired by the same photograph.<\/p>\n

I\u2019d like to think that I have not just her old camera, but her creative spirit. And, with the photos from her old camera, I have a tiny slice of time that I can revisit in my grief.<\/p>\n

The 6MP Canon PowerShot A540 is only worth about $25 on eBay \u2013 but the value in a camera lies not in megapixels, but in memories.<\/p>\n

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Take a look at the best retro cameras<\/a> or the best compact cameras<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a photographer, I\u2019m not ashamed to admit that some photographs bring me to tears. But recently, it…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390050,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-390049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}