My Bio, a Throwback in Time (Part 1)

Ever since the post "I Am a Photographer" featured back in June (see here), I have been wanting to give a brief little rundown of all the many types of cameras I have used over the years. This will be to make a point for one...and two, I simply want to show you what is 'behind the scenes' of this blog.

Many people think that you have to own the most up-to-date camera equipment on the planet to make beautiful photos. As if to be called a photographer, they first have to spend thousands of dollars. On the contrary, you don't have to have a $5000 Canon DSLR camera with a $900 lens just to dip your toe the photography pool. 

No. All you need to have is the will to walk outside and capture the most beautiful colors known to man on a Fall day...and some sort of camera. That's all you need to start.

Having said that, here are a few of the cameras I have had over my lifetime. As you will see, most are not "all that".

Image not mine, but courtesy of wikipedia.com

The first camera I ever remember playing around with was the Kodak Instamatic, similar to the one pictured here. (I had to be no more than 5 years old.) It was an old camera passed down from my great grandmother. It took an easy-to-load 126 film cartridge. The neatest thing was the "flashcube" (not pictured here). You took a picture, and when you advanced to the next frame, the flashcube would rotate. Four flashes per cube, then you threw it away. How neat! Although wasteful, it was very innovative back in the 60's when they came out. 


 

Image not mine, but courtesy of wikipedia.com

The next camera that I had was a Kodak disc camera that was passed down to me from my aunt back in the early 1980's when I was 7 or 8 years old. This camera used the old VR format disk film in the flat cartridge. Each held 15 exposures. Not very glamorous but I loved it. It was flat, and I could stick it in my back pocket and carry it anywhere. This was the beginning for me I do believe.

Image not mine, courtesy of flickr.com/photos/mech_for_i/

Skipping ahead a bit to my last film point-and-shoot camera...shown here is the Kodak Advantix T550 camera. It uses the 35mm-like APS film cartridge that pops in from the bottom. I got this one new back in the late 90s and still have it. It takes awesome pictures for a little point-and-shoot, (due to the larger film size that mimicks 35mm) and is completely automatic. It's a nice little backup camera to your backup camera (did you follow that?).

50mm, ISO 100, f/3.5, 1/250th of a sec, strobe 1/128th pwr

This is the Pentax P30. It is a 35mm SLR, fully manual, even down to the focusing. The only thing you can set to automatic is the shutter speed, that's it. It's basic and beautiful. I have two lenses for it along with a flash that can be attached to the hot shoe. I received it as a birthday gift from my parents on my 12th birthday. I've got it still and, in fact, this the actual camera shown here. 

This is the camera that made me realize that I had an interest deep down inside that was a little different than my friends at the time. This was a flame that started to grow into a hobby.

And with that, we'll end part one of my bio. These are the film cameras that started it all for me. Next time I'll touch on some the digital cameras that I have been fortunate enough to call my own.

Here's something I want you to take away from this... You don't have to have all kinds of sophisticated gear to dabble in photography. All you need is some type of camera to START. You can always add gear later.

It's been a nice little journey for me so far...and it all started with a Instamatic camera passed down from my great grandmother. Hope you enjoyed this little throwback in time.

Thanks for reading and happy shooting!

Brant

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