Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Photography

When I was very small I used to like to look through the photo albums and see pictures of my parents and grandparents when they were young. The pictures were black and white and inserted in little corner tabs on all four sides.

My first camera was a Kodak Brownie; I got it when I was about 8 years old. I was so proud to be able to take pictures just like a grown person. The pictures weren’t great, but they were mine!

My father used a 35 mm Kodak Pony, as basic 50s style camera. He had me pose for what seemed like hours for the requisite Easter photos. But mostly he took travel photos. Some were in black and white and others were in color.

Daddy could process black and white film in his darkroom and I used to help him. We put the film in little black light-tight canisters and poured in smelly chemicals. He took the negatives out and hung them up with clothes pins to dry on a line he strung across his workshop. Once the film was dry the next day, we would make prints. We put out several trays of very smelly chemicals. Daddy had an enlarger that enabled us to insert the negative and an image would be projected on the paper. Magically, when we put the paper in the developers, the image would appear. When we put the paper in the stop bath, the development would stop. Then we had to rinse the photos. Still, the paper had to dry. We had large spiral blotter books that we put the pictures in to absorb the moisture. The finished product was usually a matte finish print. Paper was expensive, so 8” x 10” prints were reserved for the best shots.

About 1953, my Dad had my uncle, who was stationed in Germany, get him a Retina IIIc camera. It was a fine camera that produced high quality 35 mm. photos. He loved that camera and used it for about twenty years before he upgraded to a newer style 35 mm. camera.

Daddy tired of processing his own film after a few years and he started shooting slides. We bought an old Bell and Howell projector that used rectangular shaped trays. You had to put each slide in a separate little plastic frame. Putting a slide show together was a big deal! Still, after each trip or special event, slides soon followed. We had a small tripod screen that served us well for decades.

When I was a teenager I got a Polaroid camera. It took poor quality instant black and white prints that had to be coated with a gel as soon as they developed. The camera wasn’t great, but the price was right! I still have a madras covered photo album from the old Swinger.

When we got married in 1969, Steve had a 35 mm. Pentax camera. It is a nice basic single lens reflex camera and he has a range of lenses. He still uses it and is in no hurry to upgrade.

Shortly after our marriage, we bought a Kodak Carousel projector. We got a model 850 (the top model) and it came with a really nice zoom lens. Having used Carousel projectors routinely in my training and work in the audiovisual field, I thought I was hot stuff when we had our own. We even bought a remote control, a stack loader, and a synchronizer unit. I could make synchronized slide shoes.

My first serious adult camera was a 35 mm Yashica in about 1971. I was involved in the Norton AFB Officers’ Wives’ Club and worked on the magazine. All the photos were taken with the club’s old Polaroid camera, and the only place with enough light was the ladies’ bathroom in the O Club. The wall paper was light colored and there was one open wall that served as backdrop. All photos included the bottom of a window air conditioner power cord. My contribution was to provide 35 mm. black and white shots taken with a flash in rooms OTHER than the ladies’ room. But, of course, taking the pictures wasn’t enough. We worked a deal to pay an airman to develop them for us in the base hobby shop’s photo lab.

I took photography lessons in the local Adult Ed program in San Bernardino, California. Steve also patiently taught me how to handle the mechanics of photography. Like my father, he had a darkroom and we (mostly he) started processing our own photos. I soon lost interest and opted for camera store processing.

By the late 70s I was doing more and more serious photography and felt I needed a Single Lens Reflex. I bought myself a Nikon EM, a low-end Nikon. Nikon lenses use a bayonet mount and Pentax lenses use a screw mount. Steve, being a big Pentax fan, has never quite understood my appreciation of Nikons.

Using little red ceramic letters I could even shoot title slides, but that also required I use a copy stand. It was a unit that held the camera up above the subject and there were lights on either side. Getting the ceramic letters was hard, but I could make decent looking title slides. I felt so empowered!

I eventually replaced my old Nikon EM with a Nikon FG. It was still not the finest model by any stretch, but it had more bells and whistles than any camera I had ever had before. That camera was my all-time favorite and it served me well for many years. I accumulated a wonderful tripod, lots of great lenses and filters. With all of this equipment and years of experience I got to be a pretty decent photographer.

The years kept moving and I gradually learned that having a heavy camera was a liability. I hated to carry a camera that would not fit in my purse. I tried Instamatics, 110s and finally a small, automatic 35 mm. camera made by Nikon. It is a really good little camera and I still use it today when I want to shoot film.

About eight years ago, Steve gave me a Sony Mavica digital camera. It uses floppy disks and is a whopping 1.8 megapixels. Still, in many ways it was a miracle. I could shoot a photo and simply pop the disk into my computer’s floppy drive. But, as most digital cameras of its vintage, it was heavy and certainly wouldn’t fit in my purse.

Meanwhile, I got involved in a zillion other things and photography was not something I had much time for anymore. When I needed photos, usually I enlisted a staff member to do it for me. Gradually, my Mavica became a dinosaur. Usually I just used my little Nikon “purse camera” when the need arose.

Last spring I went to South Carolina and wanted to photograph a very special event there. The light would be limited and I couldn’t use a flash, so I opted to shoot with my old Nikons (black and white film in one and color in the other). I loaded up with high speed film and packed my tripod and big bag of cameras and film. The pictures were not great! I can no longer see to focus. One camera died in action and the other wasn’t working consistently. The Sony Mavica performed OK, as did my little Nikon “purse” camera. I took some pictures with my cell phone and they also were OK (though low resolution for sure). I had some photos, but not the great stuff I had wanted!

That incident did it! I went to the camera store and bought a new digital camera. Yes, it a Nikon and it is so tiny it fits in my purse or pocket with ease. It is 5.1 megapixels and turns out some terrific photos. I feel fulfilled, but I am sure soon something better will come along and I will have to have it. Meanwhile, Steve will just keep on happily using his nearly forty year old Pentax.

We have this drawer in our front hall cabinet. It is filled with cameras, lenses, filters, flashes and cords of all descriptions. Most of the stuff actually works. Maybe we should try to sell them, but doubt they would bring much. So, we just keep on stuffing old cameras in the drawer.

We have four large bookshelves downstairs and each one has a closed cabinet at the bottom. Each cabinet is filled with slides. Some are in boxes and others are in Carousel trays. Some are my parents’ and some are ours. Someday I should set up the light table and organize them all. Maybe I could have them copied and made into a Power Point programs. Just think of how easily I could make title slides and synchronize them. Then what! It is hard enough to find a friendly audience for vacation slides when they are fresh; age them for a few decades and lose track of where or when they were taken and try to find an audience.

Then there is that dresser full of photos; and, of course, the old military trunk under the stairs filled with photos from pre-World War II. Someday I should go through all of those photos as well. Maybe I could replace the crumbling album pages with new ones from the Hallmark store. Or maybe I should get some of those photo boxes like they advertise on TV. Someday, when I have nothing else better to do I will take this on for sure. Yeah right!

For now, I am going to keep using my little digital camera and maybe get one of those special little printers. Or maybe I will just upload all the decent stuff to a Web site and erase the rest.

I wonder…will the digital photos we take today and upload to our computers have anywhere near the staying power of those old prints in the trunk in the basement? Or will they simply go away as hard drives die and Web sites go down. Guess I had better get one of those little printers. Besides, is definitely easier than the dark room used to be.

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