A Chronological History of my Photographic Journey

     Welcome to the first in a series of articles that will celebrate our technology today.  Most of the time, I am a technophobe. I didn't even start using a cell phone until about 2 years ago, and mine isn't really "smart". I got one for $20 a few months ago that I can check my e-mail on, and it has a 2.0 mega pixel camera in it. But that's old news to you, I'm sure. The phones most people have now do everything but cook meals for you. I just want to be able to make a phone call home if I miss the bus. Anyway, I'll probably do an article about the telephone another day. Today I want to talk about cameras!

     The camera has evolved quite a bit since I was a kid. But the changes made only in the past five or six years have been amazing.  My first camera was a 126. Does anybody out there remember those? It  had a little film cartridge, and -get this- flash bulbs!!! The pictures it took were actually pretty good. They were square. I'm getting very nostalgic now as I write this, because some of the pictures I took were of my cat Bigfoot, and my grandmother. In those days, 99% of the pictures I took were of my cats, and the other 1% were of spring flowers and trees, and the occasional landscape. (see pictures at the end of this article.)

     My second camera was a 110. The big improvement? A telephoto lens! So now I could have close-up shots. And a built in flash, wowee. My third camera? A Kodak 35 mm. I had arrived! I learned how to thread the film without ruining it, and I took the same types of pictures I always did, but they were a little bit better.  I always had the point and shoot kind. I never learned how to use a "real" 35mm camera, with all those dials and settings. In retrospect I wish I had. That type of photography takes real skill. Back then I wasn't too interested in photography as an art form, I just wanted pictures of certain things to remember them.
     Photographs, for better or for worse, record what is there. They say the camera doesn't lie. It captures one moment in time. That moment would otherwise be gone forever. The picture you took helps you remember that moment. That's why I like candid shots. I also like to take a picture of the same place at different times of the year, year after year. It's interesting to see how things change, physically, without you really noticing until you compare. Then you have situations where buildings are torn down. Then it's nice to have a recorded history of what it used to look like.

    Does anybody else remember the disc camera? My Mom had one of those. The film was wheel shaped. Maybe she should dig it out of the cellar and try to sell it on e-bay.  Before that, I don't know what she had, I just remember her thumb being in the corner of every shot (sorry, Mom!)

     The main drawback to being a photographer in those days was the expense. Film was not cheap, even if you bought it on sale.  And there were at the most, 36 exposures on a roll. You had to pace yourself, or risk wasting your precious film. When I take pictures now, I could take 36 shots in a couple of minutes, in the quest for the perfect angle. 
     As I sit here and compare the old vs. the new way to take pictures, I have to say that there were some good things about the old way. First, there was the ultimate thrill I got from getting my pictures back in the mail. I usually dilly dallied for at least six months before mailing the film, so I would not remember very much about what was on the roll. It was fun to open the packet and see the pictures I had forgotten about. On the other hand, it could be very disappointing when I opened the package and discovered that I got a bunch of credits for pix that didn't come out. But that wasn't as bad as seeing a bunch of photos that looked like crap: under exposed, blurry, crooked, etc. Back then, you had to look through the viewfinder. I haven't looked through a viewfinder in so long now, I'd forgotten they even existed! Thank God for the 3" screen in the back of the digital camera!
     I hate to admit it, but the digital camera made me a better photographer. First, because I am able to see how the picture came out right away. If it's no good, I can delete it immediately. No need to waste film, because there isn't any! That is still amazing to me. The worst that can happen is to run out of space on your memory card. I don't re-use my cards, I save them, just in case my computer crashes.
     I just love digital photography because you can take much better pictures. More clear, and you can crop them right in the camera. And no running out of film. That said, I still feel bad when the old ways of doing things become obsolete. Hearing that Kodachrome is no longer being made makes me sad. History is being lost. I hope that there are still some real photographers out there to keep history alive.
    The big project I have ahead of me is to get a digital converter to transfer my old pictures onto my computer. My old pictures may not be as good a quality, but the images cannot be replaced. My kitties are longer with us, and my niece is all grown up. The yard looks different now with some the trees needing to be cut down. But luckily, I got them saved for posterity.

 This is Bigfoot. Too bad you can't actually SEE his big foot! At the time the internet did not exist, and I had no idea I would someday be sharing his image with the entire world! He was the best cat in the world. Look at the intensity in his eyes! I think he was four years old in this picture (circa 1981-82).

 Here is my wonderful grandmother. She is holding her cat, Tora, She did not like to have her picture taken, so I cherish every picture I have of her, especially the ones I took.  It was easier to get her to agree to a photo if she had a cat on her lap!

Here is Bigfoot again. See how grainy a non-digital photo is? Actually the original hard copy doesn't look this bad.

See you next time! Don't forget to take lots of pictures of your family, friends, and pets. You won't regret it!

    

Can we finish with Thanksgiving before we start on Christmas, please?!

         It's only November 11th, but it's time to rush into Christmas. Needless to say, I do NOT approve. I'm one of those crazy people that doesn't want to hear an endless loop of Christmas songs until it's actually Christmas time. That means December first, or after Thanksgiving at the very earliest.  It seems like we were only talking about Halloween the other day (because we were!). 

        I hope I don't sound like Scrooge here.  I LOVE Christmas.  But wouldn't it be better and more meaningful to celebrate Thanksgiving first?  That is still a couple of weeks away. It's not like the time doesn't fly by so fast that we have to speed things along a little.  People can still buy gifts early if they want, and prepare for the big day by decorating, putting up lights outdoors, and even get a head start on baking.
     All I find offensive is having the holiday shoved down my throat before I am ready to deal with it.  This means I do not appreciate seeing displays of wrapping paper, ornaments, etc when it's still October.  I don't need to hear Bruce Springsteen's "Santa Claus is coming to town", or any other Christmas song ad nauseum before middle December.

     I don't know how it is where you live, but here, the Christmas carols came on 24/7 on the local oldies channel. I have managed to avoid it until today, they started on Monday, I think. I haven't had the nerve to check their competition, who  in the past decided to do the same exact thing. You'd think they would want to play regular music, for people like me.   Maybe I'm in the minority, because they wouldn't be doing this unless it was profitable and getting good ratings. 
     I think the thing that bothers me the most is that by the time Christmas actually happens, it's anticlimactic at best. I'm so fed up and happy to finally be done with it so I can get on with my life. That's not what Christmas is supposed to be about.  In addition to that, I get annoyed that despite the saturation of holiday commercialism, I don't find time to do what I need to do.  I always end of waiting until the last minute to shop, and I don't make time for the things I want to do--mainly baking cookies and special fruitcakes,  writing out Christmas cards, and making hand made gifts for my friends. Decorating? Forget it.  Well, I'm going to try to get it done this year, but I'm not making any promises.
     Compounding my distaste for holiday overkill is the fact that I work in a nursing home, so we are basically celebrating Christmas non-stop from December 1st until the 26th. That doesn't include Hanukkah, either.  It's great that we are able to make things enjoyable for the residents.  I just need a little time to breathe between parties!
     How do you feel about Christmas time?  Do you think the media ruins the day by starting too soon?  How do you enjoy celebrating? How do you get into the spirit?  In a future column I will elaborate on what makes Christmas time so special. 

Back to Eastern Standard Time Again

     Wow, did it get dark early tonight, and it's only going to get darker for the next couple of months.  Last night before you went to bed, hopefully you remembered to turn back your clock one hour, so you didn't get up earlier than you had to. I had to work this weekend, and I did set the clock back , but then failed to set the alarm! Luckily, I got up in time to catch the bus.

     I think a lot about turning the clocks back in the fall because it's the day I always dread. It comes a lot later than it used to these days, but still, when this day arrives, you know it's all downhill where the weather is concerned.  Before you know it, it will be dark by 4:00, and cold, dreary, wintery. Yuck.

     My grandmother hated to see this day coming too.  We used to complain about it together, and on that Sunday each year, we always made sure to visit Grammy, so we could suffer through it together. When we were sitting in her livingroom, I sat next to her on the divan, as she called it, and she in her wing chair.  I wouldn't notice what time it was, or the fact that it was already dark. I was too busy drinking tea and eating a piece of her cake.  Somehow it seemed less painful when we dealt with it together.

     Grammy had a clock in the kitchen that played bird songs instead of chimes. Every time we had to turn the clock forward or back, the bird chirps would end up being wrong.  I was able to fix it once, but after that, my uncle would just remove the batteries for an hour, and they kept the inaccurate chirps from then on. 

     As the weeks went on, slowly we gained back minutes in the morning and at night. I always loved the way my grandmother kept track of how much we gained back, and in turn, how many days until spring.  She wrote it in on her calendars, and every time I went to visit, I could keep track. When we chatted on the phone, she'd always let me know how many minutes we were towards daylight savings time. Boy, do I miss my grandmother.

    Do you ever get caught up in the nonsense that happens when you change from daylight to standard time?  You can't help telling yourself "It's really ten o'clock, not eleven". I don't think I ever really gained an hour of extra sleep, because I justify staying up because I won't actually lose any sleep.  Then when we lose the hour of sleep but gain the hour of light, I probably lose two hours of sleep, because "it's really midnight, not one o'clock".  I go back and forth with this conversation in my head for a couple of weeks before I let it go. But I should remind myself that Eastern standard time is the real time, and Daylight savings is not.

     In keeping with the theme of this blog, there are some good things about it getting dark, and the onset of winter. With the leaves off the trees, you can see more of the sky, and that means beautiful sunsets. I am lucky that my office at work is on the third floor, and with a picture window. The photo above was taken from the office, I think in 2010. The flash kind of ruins it, but you get the idea. I tried to insert a cropped version of this photo, but it didn't work.

   
     Another advantage of fall? Without leaves to get in the way, you can see the skeleton of a tree, and all those branches silholetted against the sky.  In dim light, it's really beautiful. In the above shot, you can see a bird in an upper branch.

We also have fall foilage. This year, I hate to say that it's November 6th, and many leaves are still green!! It ain't happening this year. But I will be sure to appreciate it more next year.

     How do you feel about losing that hour of light today? Does it bother you? Do you look forward to daylight savings in the spring?  Share your thoughts with me!
One last thought before I go- at least I'm not getting up in the dark for the next couple of weeks!
Take care until next time.
Karin