Gentle Jess

Sometimes I believe I am surfing the wave of technology. Five or ten minutes a week I have this fantasy. The rest of the time the young people here let me down gently.

Such was the case this week as I trolled through our wonderful stash of animal photos, both those already decorating the office and those arriving now for our new Animal Wellness Collection brochure.

Yes, even I could see that the old photos you sent years ago have faded too much from the sun to be used in the new brochure.

Yes, even I could see that there were problems with lots of my early photography efforts, that maybe it was no surprise that an entire box of saved photos contained not a single shot that could be used.

The technology sticking points came as your pictures arrived. I loved them all. We got to see so many animal friends we have talked with you about over the years. We were enchanted with each photo update of an old friend and each photo introduction of a new face. AND I wanted them all in the brochure.

My dear layout person and technology wizard Jess gently let me down. For a number of days she stayed at her high tech home computer scanning, sizing, transforming each photo sent into a possible shot for the brochure. I stayed here, cooing over each new photo arrival. Then Jess came up with her mock ups and gently showed me why not every shot could fit in the brochure.

Editing is not my strength. Gentle Jess had her work cut out for her.

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“Oh come on! What is wrong with this shot?” I would demand.

“Well, ” replied gentle Jess, “It really doesn’t fit with any Animal Wellness remedy description and I am not sure everyone would recognize that this is a photo of a dog.”

“It’s perfect for Showcats? This is a shy dog in need of that remedy.” I would whine.

“We only have 22 remedies to cover. Is this really the best one for Showcats?” she would counter in the most mild mannered way.”

“But it’s funny.” I would reply.

“Well let’s just put it aside for now.” Jess would murmur in soothing tones.

And so we got through the sorting and Jess managed to part me from the hundreds of shots I wanted to include in this tiny brochure, but that couldn’t fit.

To be frank, Jess had to practice a bit of animal whispering with me. Whenever I got uppity she would settle me down with layout speak about pixels, grain and resolution. Technology talk never fails to bring me back to earth. And the sight of serious technology equipment works even better. At one point, Jess took me to her space station computer to drive home her point, well her five hundred points really.

There at the bridge of the USS Enterprise her computer, she moved everything at the speed of light to try all 500 shots I wanted to include. AND I could see what she meant. I faced facts. I have no idea how she does what she does or what most of what she explained to me actually means or even what we were looking at, but I could see she was right. Not all shots could be used.

But all this doesn’t mean we haven’t enjoyed every last photo you sent, because we have! Enjoying your animal photo gifts required no technological skills. It was pure and simple old fashion delight. AND I THANK YOU ONE AND ALL!

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