Today is the first day of National Photography Month (as well as Beltane), so I thought I’d do a bit of show and tell with my cameras.
If I recall correctly, the shutterbug didn’t truly bite me until I was in high school. I’d played around with taking pictures before, and went through Polaroid film almost as fast as my mother would buy it, but my love really developed the first time I set foot in the darkroom in my 12th grade photography class. My dad, the family photog, decided if I was going to learn, I should have a decent, basic camera to work with. So he gave me this Wirgin Edinex to use –
The semester, and my time in the darkroom, ended, and I began to daydream with my father about the day we’d set up our own darkroom at the house. We even had the perfect spot picked out – a large closet in our renovated attic space. Unfortunately, the daydreams never became reality, but I still hold out hope that some day I’ll have a darkroom, and Dad will be the shadow watching over my shoulder as I develop some old school negatives.
Halfway through my senior year, my theater group got the opportunity to go to Germany and Paris (long, awesome, story for another day). Not too long before the trip, my dad presented me with my first *real* camera – a Nikon EM, complete with carrying case, lenses, and lots of informational paperwork.
That camera went with me to Germany, Paris (twice), and stayed by my side through the early years of starting my own family. It slowly began leaking light some time in the mid 2000s, and by 2007, hubby sweetly and unexpectedly replaced it with a new, digital Nikon. Unfortunately, I don’t have a picture of that camera because during the ice storm of 2010, it disappeared from our apartment, and I have no idea (but plenty of suspicions) where it ended up.
In short order, hubby managed to replace that camera with one that, I hate to say because of the sentimental attachment I have to Nikon, works even better than the one that got stolen disappeared.
For my camera loving friends out there – what is your favorite camera? Do you miss film (like me), or do you love the instant feedback digital cameras provide (like me). Please shout out in the comment section below. Bright Beltane blessings and Happy May Day!
My dad has been a camera nut for most of his life — I can’t tell you how many times we had to pull him back from the edge of a cliff (literally) because he was teetering dangerously while trying to get the perfect shot of something. He had his own darkroom when I was a baby; by the time I’m old enough to remember, we’d moved to NH and, distracted by raising four kids, he never got around to setting up his equipment in the basement, yet, I still have strong scent memories of the chemicals used to develop and print film. They make me think of Dad, every time.
I love the immediacy of digital (beats a Polaroid all hollow!), but I worry about the future — will all those millions of images survive, with the ever-changing nature of digital storage techniques and technology? Our family albums contain hardcopy photos that are close to 100 years old, and they’re as sharp today as they were the day they were taken…