My Start in Photography

Film. Do you remember those little rolls?? I still have some in a drawer. A few of them have never been used, but many have memories on them I have never had developed and probably never will...They're probably no good any more. I remember a junk drawer in our house when I was growing up, and it had about 20 used rolls of film in it. No idea what was on them or who took the pictures. It was probably either my dad or me. I remember him always having the latest gadgets...you know, the video camera he had to hold on his shoulder and carry the VCR on his hip, hanging on a shoulder strap. No joke. Oh, and the Apple IIe computer, and eventually a Compaq with an early version of Windows, called Tabworks. He had a film SLR camera, too. I don't really remember if he got that before or after realized my love for freezing time on film, but I think he's the one I got my photography bug from!

I remember, one summer day, some of my extended family was at our house. My cousin Lisa and I must have been shopping through the Sunday paper ads. There in the Kmart ad was a really basic point and shoot film camera for $19.99. We both had to have one. We begged, and our parents took us and we each got one! The way I remember it, I used my own money to buy it, but I could be mistaken. :) Maybe it was my birthday and I used my birthday money??!! Anyway, I loved that thing. I loved the cheap "springy" sound of the shutter button, the whirring sound it made when the film advanced, and I loved dropping off my roll of film in the little envelopes at Meijer and the excitement of picking them up a couple days later! Days! We had to wait days to see the images we created! But we didn't know any different.

I have lots of old photo albums full of old pictures I took in high school and college. They're fun to look back at once in a while. I'm glad I got them developed and printed. But I sometimes wonder what memories faded away with the old undeveloped film in the drawer.

It's kind of like the photos many of us have on CDs now. At least we get to see them and they probably have writing in Sharpie telling us what the pictures are. But they're in a drawer. Not printed. Forgotten. And some day we won't have the technology any more to read those CDs, or even worse, the CD will scratch or become corrupt and you won't even be able to pay someone big bucks to retrieve them. Photos aren't meant to be on a CD or to stay in digital format. They are meant to be displayed. Think back to your childhood...do you remember a special picture displayed somewhere? If it hadn't been printed, you never would have seen it.

That's why I don't enjoy giving away digital images. I want you to display them so they become someone's special memory. That's how it works. :) My favorite two parts of doing what I do are the reveal and the delivery. Both involve physical printed products.

I have so many other pieces of the "how I became a photographer" puzzle to tell you about, but this post is long enough. :) Look for my next post in a few days and I'll tell you more!

For now, check out my Summer's End Limited Edition Family Sessions. I am only accepting 10 of these, and there are only 7 left. And yes...they include digitals. Honestly, I'm broke and need to do some sessions to cover the bills. Give me a call!