Most of my childhood memories were captured by my Dad and his Polaroid. It was always cool to be the kid picked to hold the polaroid while it developed and then give it back to Dad so he could peel it apart.
I remember how grown up I felt when my sister Christy gave me her old Vivitar 110. I thought that was such a fancy camera, I still have photos I took with that camera.
In junior high art class I was gently brought into the wonderful world of 35mm. There was no looking back after that. My Mom and Dad got me a great 35mm camera for my high school graduation, my prized Minolta.
I used that camera for countless rolls of film in college and took over Dad's roll of photo documentor of all family events. I now have at least 3 plastic totes in the basement of photos from all those years of film.
Then came the age of digital. Oh the technology. No more film, no more wasted shots, and wow, editing on the computer. I am now on my 4th digital camera. Started out with a Polaroid pdc640, it had an amazing .3 megapixel! Hmmmm how did we progress back to Polaroid! Then we upgraded to a Fuji FinePix A250, with an outstanding 2 megapixels (hmm, no photo available for this one). This camera actually had a screen on the back and you could view the photo instantly! Oh, be still my heart! I then moved onto a lovely Olympus, still point and shot but *gasp* it records video with sound! Oh, the advancements in technology! the other thing about the Olympus (I still use this camera at family parties so I can use the video portion) is that it had more of the look of a 35mm camera and felt like a "real" camera to me.
This past summer I got the camera I had been lusting over for several years, my Canon Rebel DSLR. Oh how I love this camera. The biggest thing I realized when I first started using this camera however, was that I had lost a lot of my photography skills due to using point and shoot cameras for several years. I had to do a review of depth of field and exposure and apature settings.... Yikes, how quickly we lose knowledge when we don't use it. So now I am still practicing with all the nuts and bolts of photo techniques again.
Please don't get me wrong, I still (in my humble opinion) took really great photos with the point and shoot cameras and the three photos I won awards with were from my Olympus. I think if you have an eye for photography it doesn't matter what camera you use, you will still get good photos.
So now, my latest adventure in the amazing world of photography is with a Holga. A Holga is a plastic fixed lens camera that uses 120 film and can use 35mm film. I got intrigued after seeing photos on various websites from this type of camera. So, of course I had to get one. I shot my first roll over the last few weeks and got it developed last week. I used 35mm B&W film because I had a roll on hand and I couldn't wait for the 120 film to arrive in the mail. I like the basic techniques of this camera. The Holga is well known for it's grainy photos and most of these cameras have light leaks and yes this is on purpose. I like how the photos look old and nostalgic. It was fun to use B&W film again. I didn't have to worry about colors clashing! So, I thought I'd share my first photos. I now have my 120 film and will be working with that soon.
So, that is my self-serving diatribe about my love of photography. It is part of who I am. I am that annoying relative always saying "let's take a picture" at family get togethers. I have finally gotten a lot of confidence in my photography and don't care if anyone "likes" my photos anymore. I just love taking them and that is my gift to myself.
