Taking Pictures

Taking Pictures

My latest passion

I am certainly not the best. Maybe, I am mediocre, at best. However, I do try.

Making memories is often what people like to do. Oh, heck, isn’t that what a camera if for, anyway? Yet, there are so many of us “dabblers” that will use our cameras to try and capture an intereing scene or many the beauty of nature. Something interesting might catch our eyes and we think, “Hey, that would make a great picture.” And then, sometimes, not.

When I was much younger, my dad was a dabbler. I have no idea what camera he used (this was back in the mid-50s when I wasn’t more than seven years old) and he would develop his pictures in the basement of the apartment house where we lived.

After my sister was born, family income became tighter and he was forced to give up his hobby of developing but opted to have the photos printed in local shops. Dad didn’t have the money for the chemicals, plus our landlady was thirlled with him using an entire corner of her cellar. Dad only chose that corner because the one he would have preferred was used to store the coal for the building. Yes, you read right. I did say coal. We had used coal for cooking and heating.

Eventually, as we grew, so did inflation and dad’s picture-taking hobby came to a screeching halt.

Fast forward to my fifteenth birthday. My parents bought me a cute little Kodak Brownie. I had the best time taking pictures of my friends but soon found out how expensive it was having the film develooped. It wasn’t just the developing; it was also the albums I wanted to purchase to store my photographs. Through the next three years, my passion waned and my cute little Brownie was forgotten.

Eventually, I married and began using my husband’s Olympus camera. The biggest problem with that was he inisted on taking the film for development and rather than have prints made, he ordered slides. Wonderful! We didn’t have a projector. He would sometimes borrow one. One day, I said we should take pictures of the kids. They were, by time time, two and four years old. He pulled the camera out of its case and the lens fell off. Just popped right off the little camera. Diagnosis: the spring sprung! He said it cost too much to have fixed.

My next camera was a gift from, again, my parents. It wasn’t expensive but it wasn’t cheap, either. It was a Minolta, 35mm. My (ex) husband was now a thing in my past but having two small sons, roaming to take photos just didn’t happen. My picture taking consisted of shots of my sons and things they did: little league, scouts, etc.

I held on to that camera until the late 80’s when it finally saw it’s last day. My sons were now grown with girlfriends and I knew that in the near future, there would be another camera calling my name.

Enter husband number two in 1992. We were certainly enoying life, boating, hiking, fishing, and entertaining our friends. Yet, he kept saying there was something missing.

One Saturday, his brainiac lightbulg lit. “I know what we need!” he said enthusiasctially.

“Let’s go!”

Huh, go where, I wondered.

We parked in the huge lot of the mall and made our way inside. He grabbed my hand as we headed to the – you guess it - a camera store!

That was my first Nikon Coolpix. It was a point and shoot. There wasn’t anything special about it. No zoom. No lens ajustment. Just, point and shoot! Yet, it served our purpose. We could now save more memoires.

When my mom, due to poor health, moved in with us, she said she wanted to get us something very special to thank us for our generosity. She took me shopping – and you guess it again! Another camera. Good thing, too. That was in 2012. My husband liked the idea of having his own camera and opted to use the older Nikon. My new Canon had more bells and whistles than I could ever learn in a lifetime but it was mine!

Pushing mom in her wheelchair might seem like a chore but it also gave me the advantage of visiting local (and some not-so-local) and take those beautiful photographs I always dreamed of.

My new camera (thanks, Mom) has a built-in-flash with a slot for a bigger flash attachment. It came with an additional lens and naturally, mom bought me one that has a more distant zoom.

When mom’s health faltered more each year, my wandering became less and less. I wasn’t about to wheel her frail body around just so I could take pictures. I opted to sit on my lanai with her and reminisce of older times which she forgetting more and more.

Mom became another angel in 2017 but because of her love for us and her insight into what I like to do, I still have my Canon Rebel and once again, I’m wandering around taking pictures.

No, as I said, I’m not the best. And yes, I am mediocre at best, but I am enjoying ever second I have my camera in my hand doing my best to caputre the nature that’s all around me.