Memories and Photos

I bought my first "real" camera in late 1978. A real camera for me was an SLR (Single Lens Reflex) that used interchangeable lenses, had built in metering, and could use an automatic flash. I had always been interested in photography, but had never owned anything more sophisticated than a Polaroid that my then fiance bought me for a birthday present.

I was inspired to get a better camera by one of my best friends and room-mates. He purchased an Olympus OM-1 SLR in the summer of 1978 and shortly afterwards a group of us (him, my wife, me and another friend and roommate)went on a rafting trip down the Snake River in Idaho and then traveled cross-country from Idaho to Georgia passing through Yellowstone National Park and Grand Tetons National Park along the way. The quality of his photos, compared to mine was like night and day. So, for Christmas in 1978, I got a Canon AT-1 SLR camera and a 50mm f/1.8 FD lens. I still have both the camera and lens and they still take great photos nearly some 30 years later.

Of course, I wasn't very good at first. I had to learn about exposure, depth of field, sharpness, composition and all the other aspects of real photography. I loved every minute of it. So, by 1988, I felt I had a pretty good handle on things. When I look back, though, I find many flaws in the photos I took back then. It was fortunate that I had a willing a patient model (models if you count my kids, who were willing but usually quite impatient).

The photos in this post are from the 10th Anniversary trip that my wife and I took to Florida. These were taken on the beach at Fort Lauderdale. She got a lot of catcalls and whistles while we were shooting and totally enjoyed the attention. These photos are scans from the original print and so lack the clarity and "pop" of the digital photos I currently take. But these photos have a history and they bring back memories of a wonderfully fun vacation in the hot Florida sun with a beautiful woman. And bringing back memories are what photos do best.