As a child, my parents took pictures with what I seem to recall was a 110 Insta-Matic and some kind of 35mm box camera. We never had a Polaroid, and I vaguely remember running across flash cubes in the record cabinet in the den, so it had to be an Insta-Matic or something like it. Anyway up until 1977, I had little interest in photography — I was more focused on Legos and Matchbox cars. Then in March 1977, everything changed when we took our first family vacation to visit my aunt, uncle, and cousin in Washington, D.C. Not satisfied with the photography stylings of the Insta-Matic, Dad (that’s him to the right) went off with my uncle to Ritz Camera outside of D.C., perused the selection of SLRs and rangefinders, and opted to purchase a Minolta SRT-201, flash, 50mm lens, and a 135mm telephoto. Mom was quite “happy” with Dad’s purchase as he blew nearly all of our travel money, thus turning our vacation into a very different kind of adventure. Fortunately for me, I didn’t notice (but knowing now does explain a few things that happened on that trip).
Armed with his new toy, Dad shot literally hundreds of slides and since everything was in slide form, we had to get the slide projector, numerous carousels, and a screen. Our den suddenly became a multimedia warehouse aching to become something much more. I think Dad was determined to prove to Mom that the camera was not a waste of money, so we turned our trip into a full multimedia show complete with music and voiceovers. Hours of production time later, our vacation became a multimedia show that haunted me for the rest of elementary school (when teachers ran out of ideas for class, they contacted Mom to do the slide show). Admittedly, it was quite cool and the whole experience probably defined my career, but I digress.
The little Minolta was virtually indestructible. Dad took it everywhere, and as a volunteer firefighter, it literally did go everywhere. For example, there was one particularly terrible blaze only blocks away from home that claimed a friend’s home in the dead of a North Dakota winter. It was between -20F and -40F (not wind chill, but actual temperature), and there was Dad, fighting the fire with the camera around his neck. When he came in to warm up, he was literally covered in about 1/2” of ice and sealed within the ice was the SRT-201 as he had it on the outside of his fire coat the entire time. We peeled the camera off of him and let it thaw and dry out. The pictures that came out of that camera were unbelievable.
One of Dad’s customers was the local camera store and when they could not pay their service bill, he traded his work for a new camera and accessories. He moved up to an XD-11 with a winder and a Honeywell flashgun (same as the gray flashgun in Austin Powers), and passed the SRT-201 down to me. Armed with the indestructable camera, I became one of the junior high and high school photographers for both the school newspaper and yearbook. Because the photography class had gone the way of budget cuts, I had to learn how to use a darkroom the hard way. Eventually I figured out black-and-white processing and printing.
I shot almost exclusively in black-and-white and became the school’s action and sports photographer. The upshot was that I could go to virtually any sports event, the downside was that I had an entirely manual camera that made it difficult to get the perfect shot. At the same time I was “doing the photography thing,” I was also active in Science Fair in my senior year, I made a bet with my parents — if I took first place and went to International, they would buy me a new camera. Well, needless-to-say, I ended up with a new camera.
When I won the bet, I wanted a semi-automatic camera with a winder and better metering. At the time, Minolta had just released its Maxxim series and had the X-700, but neither caught my eye. Instead, I shifted to a Nikon N-2000 with a relatively fast Vivitar 35-200mm zoom. Right about that time, I picked up some tips from the local newspaper photographer and with my new equipment, my photographic skills began to improve dramatically. At about that time, Dad loaned his Honeywell flashgun to me. Aside from being the perfect tool for turning a night football field into complete daylight (it could throw about 700 feet!), it was great for flash fights. Everyone ran away in terror when the whine of the capacitors started — it could cause oval “sun burns” if fired directly against bare skin (yes, I tried it).
Anyhow, I headed off to college and decided to take a photography class to learn what I was doing all along. On my first class assignment, the Nikon failed — the electronically-controlled shutter didn’t want to trip. After fussing with it for a few days (and yes, I did change the batteries) and becoming exceedingly frustrated, I called home and my parents sent the SRT-201 down to New Orleans, and it performed flawlessly. I took some fantastic shots during that time, including my award-winning photo, Punishment.
A while later, I had the Nikon repaired, but it was never the same. Shortly thereafter and once my access to the darkroom ended, my interest in photography waned as I became more and more interested in video production. Eventually, the Nikon ended up in a camera bag on the shelf and the SRT-201 went back to North Dakota.
Many years later, I was getting ready for my first trip to England and decided that I wanted to take some real photographs. Digital photography had not blossomed yet, so the only real option was film. A couple of days prior to my trip, I pulled out the Nikon N-2000 for a test run to make sure it still ran correctly. I shot a roll of film and took it to a highly-recommended one-hour photo lab. When I opened up the packet, I was horrified. The exposure on every shot was off. I checked over the camera and nothing was set wrong. Could it have been me? Had I lost the edge? Would I be doomed to point-and-shoot?
In a panic with only one day left before my trip, I grabbed the N-2000 and marched over to Shutan Camera (when it was still on Randolph Street in Chicago). I looked through all of the Nikon SLRs and decided that I wanted to replace the body with a manual one. I picked an FE-2 off of the shelf, traded in the N-2000 (with a cheap 35-70mm zoom I picked up years ago), bought a 50mm f1.4 Nikkor lens, and headed out to test the camera. I shot a roll of color film and took it to the same lab. An hour later, I opened the packet of photos and the images were dead on. The pictures were incredible. I had made the right choice.
While in England, I decided to pick up a used MD-12 winder at Jessops in Bloomsbury, and that was the start of my renewed interested in photography. Over the years, Kathy convinced me to buy a beautiful 105mm f2.8 Micro-Nikkor, I received an 85mm f2 Nikkor as a gift from her father, traded the FE-2 in on an N-90s, added an F3HP body (the manual camera I always wanted and will never part with), picked up Sigma 17-35mm and 28-105mm auto-focus zooms, and added an SB-50DX flash (which I’ve since parted with) along with a host of other accessories. During this period, digital cameras have added to my photographic history. Early on, I played with the first Apple digital camera and became hooked on the potential in digital imaging. Since then, I’ve played with:
- Sony DSC-F1
- Sony DSC-FD91 (fun with floppy disks)
- Nikon D1 (with this camera, a few of my friends and I learned that early gigabit Ethernet cables and FireWire 400 cables are not wired the same)
- Sony DSC-S75 (I gave this one to my Dad and it has become another “go anywhere” firefighter’s camera)
- Nikon CoolPix 5000 (a nice camera until it failed to write a whole batch of irreplaceable photos I took in Spain)
- Kodak DCS-14n (high resolution, but soft)
- Sony DSC-F505
- Sony DSC-F707
- Sony DSC-F828
- Kyocera SL400 (small, tiny and so was the battery life)
- Canon A640 (a great camera, but the zoom lever was wonky)
- Nikon CoolPix P5100
- Nikon D200
- Panasonic Lumix G1
- Panasonic Lumix GH1
- Olympus E-PL1
Today, I’ve transitioned to digital. Although I still have my Nikon F3HP (and will probably never give it up), I’ve settled on micro 4/3 as my format of choice. It allows me to use virtually any lens made for photography or even film. I can use all of my Nikon F-mount lenses as well as those that fit a Leica M-mount, Leica screw mount, film lenses that mate to a C-mount, and my current favorites, lenses made for the Contax G-series rangefinder.
