My first camera was a 126 pocket camera, probably Kodak, that took square photos. I think my mom passed it to me when she got her first 35mm camera, but by the mid-80s I was using her camera.
I’m not sure which I used to take photos on this particular camping trip in 1987. This is a scan and may have been cropped from a square.
I took her camera to high school and have a full box of photos of my friends and classmates, and an album of photos of my student exchange trip to the Soviet Union.
When I moved to Chicago in Jan 1997, I got my first SLR camera. I believe I was using a Pentax at the time, before a boyfriend lost it and I got the Minolta I still have. I would like to scan some of my photography from my classes at Truman College in the early 2000s. My prints and negatives are packed away in large binders. I have just a few on my computer, like this portrait of Charles.
I used to take that camera to every party and on every vacation, so I have a lot of great portraits of my friends.
Then in April 2004 I met Jim, and soon bought a Canon digital SLR like he had. That is the camera I took on our honeymoon and have used ever since, when I’m not relying on my phone. I got it out this week to take photos for my embroidery post. I need to look for a camera shop where I can get it professionally cleaned and start using a real camera again.
Oh, I hope you do start using a “real” camera again along with your cell phone camera. That’s exciting to learn you have so many photos of your friends that you took at parties. This post is about looking back and looking forward through the eye of your camera lens. Very cool.