Today I’f like to talk about my recollections regarding photography.. Some as a hobby. Some as part of my freelance reporting.
Okay.
It started out slowly and built up in time. And over the years I’ve owned a bunch of cameras. It’ll be a challenge to remember them all.
The first camera I can recall was a box camera. A Kodak that my parents had. I’m not sure what size film it took.
Pretty simple. No controls. Hold it vertically or horizontally. Look for your subject in the little windows on the two sides. Flip the shutter mechanism. Period. But it was the start of m y interest.
The first camera that I owned was a Kodak Brownie Reflex.
It took the 127 size film. Look down into the viewfinder and push the little plunger near the bottom. I got quite a bit of use from that one. Some of the photos I’ve shown you — of my beagle, for instance — were taken with that one.
By the time I went away to college, I had bought a folding camera that took size 120 film
So my Bucknell photos came from that one. Looks kind of clunky by today’s standards, but it’s what was affordable at the time.
After I came to Maryland, I started to write press releases for a couple of area newspapers. And I wanted to submit photos along with my copy. Well, it just so happened Westinghouse gave me a cash award for a patent disclosure I wrote. So, with that money, I bought a Polaroid camera.
They gave you instant pictures?
Right. And I would tell the newspaper how the photo related to what I wrote.
Well, about that time the Annapolis Evening Capitol was looking to increase its circulation in the Severna Park area. So they wanted to hire a stringer reporter to cover area news.
Stringer? What’s that?
I would get paid by the column-inch. By how much space my story and photos took up on the newspaper page. As I understand it, years ago editors measured the space with a string they had available, and the name stuck.
Okay.
Well, I started out using the Polaroid, but about that time the community editor who hired me — Ed M. — decided to quit that job and head west. And start over. So to raise money for the trip he sold me his 35-millimeter camera, a Nikkormat. That’s a scaled-down version of Nikon’s top-of-the-line camera.
Looks nice.
It was. Very nice. And I got a lot of use from it. I would cover a story and write it up. And if I had taken pictures with the Nikkormat, I would identify each frame. Maybe suggest a caption. Then I would drive down to the Evening Capitol office and slip my write-up and film cartridge through the slot in the door.
Convenient.
But wait. There’s more. The Capitol gave me a key to the newsroom. So I could get in during off-hours. They would tack my negatives up on the bulletin board with my name next to it. They’d make a print and give me my neg back.
And here’s the part that makes me feel really good. As far as I know, I was the only non-employee with a key to the newsroom. They trusted me that much.
Impressive.
And it came in handy one time. I had covered a meeting in Annapolis one night, so, rather than drive back home and lose some valuable time, I went into the Capitol office and typed my story on one of their machines and left it and my film. Worked out well and made my story more timely. It was in the next day’s paper.
Nice.
Well, I got a lot of use out of that Nikkormat. Even took some color slides after playing reporter=photographer for several years.
At that point I was through with community reporting, and any future cameras were just for personal use.
Eventually the Nikkormat gave up the ghost, so I got myself one of the 126-size Instamatic cameras that had become popular about that time.
That was the kind with the drop-in cartridge. You never touched the film. Just sent the whole cartridge to the developer.
When that camera quit on me I went back to 35 mm, but this time with a simpler design. It was an Olympus Stylus Epic.
It was small and lightweight, but it could do a lot of things well.
And now I think is a good place to take a break.
Break? What kind of break?
Notice that, up to now, I’ve been talking only about my recollections in still photography. But I also got into movie-making. So I’d like to review that. And, with still photography, it was at this point that I left film cameras and was dragged kicking and screaming into the digital age. So let’s break here. Okay?
Go.
I’ve always been a fan of Hollywood movies. So, as a young adult, I was intrigued enough to try my hand at taking motion pictures.
I remember my Dad had taken some 16-mm movies when I was growing up. But, when the itch got to me, I decided to go with the more compact 8-mm format. So I bought a Bolex. Used, I think.
That got me started. When I realized I really liked the hobby, I bought a Bell & Howell.
That one could do a few more things.
And then I got into film editing. I wasn’t satisfied with leaving a film just the way I took it. I wanted to move scenes around to tell a story. Cut out the bad spots. And so forth.
Here’s where a souvenir came in handy.
How?
Remember, way back, when I told you about my troubleshooting manufacturing problems at Westinghouse Newark?
I think so.
Remember I said I used an eye loupe to examine damages to our product?
And that I saved it as a souvenir of my time there?
Yes. Okay.
Well, it came in handy when examining those small images on 8-mm movie film
.
But I also bought a film editor that let me examine each frame a little better.
And I had a title-lettering set. Of course, today you would do it by computer. But it was all mechanical back then. Physically placing plastic letters on some kind of background.
But all these movie films were silent. Sound equipment was too bulky. And expensive.
However, when videotape came along, that opened up new possibilities. It recorded sound along with pictures. The early models recorded on the full-size VHs tapes, so they were bulky. But later the 8-mm format became popular, and that’s what I bought.
You can see the difference.
I videotaped in 8-millimeter format and transferred to VHS tapes on my home VHS machine. In my VHS library I have a nice collection of vacation tapes. To Nova Scotia and the Canadian Maritime Provinces. Las Vegas. Cape May. I only wish the 8-millimeter equipment had come along by the time we took our trip to Hawaii.
So, that ends my brief excursion into movie-making. Now back to still photography.
Okay.
As I said before, I was on the brink of going digital. I bought a nice compact camera, a Nikon Coolpix.
Like my last film camera, it had a lot of functions. Many modes. It could do a lot of things. I’d be using it still except for one thing.
What was that?
Smart phones. My first cellphone was just that. A phone. But my second was a smarty-pants phone. An iPhone 5 that has many functions, including a pretty good camera.
And since it slips nicely into my pocket, there’s no need to carry a stand-alone camera with me. The phone does it all.
I know. They’re versatile.
And so ends our journey through my photographic history. I don’t foresee any further changes. Unless it’s a cellphone upgrade.
Well, thank you for the tour down Memory Lane.