When did you realize the power of photography?

I started taking photos when I was five years old. My parents got me a Kodak 110 camera, and I took many awful photos (you know, headless people, blurry close-ups, weird shots of things I liked). When I was 10 or 11 years old, I took a photography class in Middle School that taught us how to use a camera as well as how to develop and print our own photos. Can you believe the film we used was not 35mm? It looks like 120 film. Weird.



Those were a few of my attempts. I remember feeling very uninspired, and we had to finish the whole roll (of 16, I think) within a day or two. It wasn't until we moved to Arizona when I was 12 that I held a "real" camera - it was a Minolta X-370. The other day, my dad claimed we lost a lens and had to buy one in Colorado. I remember it as - we bought the whole camera in Colorado. If we'd had it before, Dad - why weren't we using it?

Do you remember the first photo you took when you thought "wow! that's amazing!"?

My sister and I argued over who took this beautiful portrait of our other sister, R. She was 3 years old, had little blonde pigtails, and was holding a purple wildflower. The bokeh (not that I knew that's what it was at the time) stunned me. I'd never seen such a thing before! Her face was in perfect focus. I'll have to find that one and scan it... I'm sure it's nothing special - but to us, it was inspiration to take more photographs with Dad's camera.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Here are a couple of recent polaroid shots that I took this past week. I feel a bit more comfortable with the Artistic TZ film than the 600 film - in part because I have to remember to put the filter on the film pack. Initially I forgot, and of course, the photo I shot was quite light.






Those two are Artistic TZ film. I just love those chains - who knows how long they've been there? {at least 2 years} At Wilson Park in Chicago there is this beautiful, twisted tree (first photo above). I have never been brave enough to photograph it, because I felt I wouldn't capture it's essence. The photograph isn't perfect, but it makes me happy. {giddy, even}



This is one of my 600 shots - not at all what I'd intended! I've taken three shots so far, and none is very good. This is my favorite, despite it's odd coloring and all. In fact, I'm thinking now that I'd like to photograph my memories with the SX-70. I'm a bit giddy thinking about taking more photographs with film! Yes, I've still been using my digital camera - but mostly to photograph my toddler (he's really too fast for the SX-70 and manual focus).

Ok, I'm off to make dinner. We seem to have come down with season-change colds, and my son (who is speaking VERY loudly behind me) kept me up most of the night. That might also explain why I've felt so forgetful today.

*I have a few more camera bags to post about! I realized that I completely forgot about Etsy sellers - and there are a few interesting options there.