Hi Guys.
Thanks, Binoy, for the initiative. It's interesting to learn how photography became a part of each of our lives. I will try to add a snapshot about my fascination with this hobby.
My first recollection of caring anything about how a camera works started when I was about ten years old, about 1957. I made a camera-like toy with a shoebox, a cardboard tube, and a lens taken from a cheap set of folding binoculars. Maybe you remember those
binoculars. They folded up to about the size of a cigarette pack and fit into the pocket. Anyway, I played with that box and lens, observing how it projected an image of the real world onto the back of the shoebox, only backwards and upside down. Then I more or less forgot that toy.
A little time later, I was gifted a simple box camera having the form factor of a TLR. I recall that it came from Hong Kong, but I cannot remember the name of it. It had about three apertures, holes punched into a rotating disk. I think it was fixed focus, as I have no recollection of a focus control. The lens was not coated.
Anyway, I had been studying art in school about that time, and I recall looking at the reversed image in that TLR's viewfinder while thinking about things my art teacher had been saying about composition. So, given that then was the first time I had ever looked into a loaded camera with "artistic intent," I guess that may have been the beginning of my life in photography. Later, after I got out on my own and had a job, I bought a Yashica J rangefinder and a cheap hand meter. That was my first "good" camera.
Over the next decade my interest in the hobby accelerated. I worked in the daytime and went to university at night. Along with my core studies I took a few courses in art and photography. The company where I worked (AT&T) had a commercial class TV/film studio, comparable to the big networks. I got a job in that department and had lots of fun, and learned a lot about imagemaking. I was very fortunate to have my favorite hobby as a paying job.
In those formative years there was lots of gear lust. I bought and traded a number of cameras back then... Yashica TL Super, M42 glass, Nikomat, Yashica-Mat 124, Nikon F, Nikkormat, Hasselblad 500c, Nikon F2, lenses, darkroom, gadgets, filters, stuff, and more stuff. Then, about ten years after the Yashica J, I realized something very important. To wit, while photography was loads of fun, my pictures were not improving very much as I bought more and better gear.
After about 12 years in the studio I secured a better paying position in telecom sales. I sold my Hasselblad gear, reasoning that 35mm was good enough for hobby pursuits. That was a correct choice, but I admit that I do miss that 500c more than any other camera I ever parted company with.
Since that time there have been any number of GAS attacks, even though I know how that gear does not come packaged with talent. In the nineties I became reacquainted with rangefinders. I also developed an interest in repairing old cameras and brought a few back to life. Rolleiflex Standard, Zeiss Ikoflex, Voigtlander Vito II, Practica FX, Bolsey Jubilee, Kiev 4a, and some MF glass come to mind.
In the 00's I watched as the digital revolution took hold. I dismayed at how early dSLRs lacked the operational culture of the great manual cameras. So, I delayed purchase of a digital camera until Nikon introduced one that would at least support my old 35mm format Nikkors. That was August of '09, when a D700 came into the family. Five years on, I see no need to "move up" to a better camera. I know fully well that many
are now better, but for me they would make no difference whatsoever. Experience has taught me that, at least.
To this day, when I pick up a camera and put the finder to my eye, I still think about that art teacher from my youth. I can almost hear her voice talking about things she had said about art and composition. Sometimes my mind's ear can hear her say "Remember, space is an important shape too".
