A Year of Blogging: June 29, 2011

June 29 is 'Camera Day'. It seems like cameras have long been a part of my life. As a baby, I was posed in front of them. Mom had our pictures taken professionally every six months. The photographer had taken pictures of mom and her sister, and had done Mom & Dad's wedding pictures. Every week (or maybe it was every month) they had a 'Beautiful Baby' section in a local paper. The baby chosen had his or her picture in the paper, and in the front window of the studio. I was the Beautiful Baby several times, as was my sister. When I was a precocious pre-schooler, my Aunt says I used to tell her 'go get your camera, I'm going to do something cute'. I was always hamming it up in pictures, until I was about ten. Then I went from being the photographee to the photographer. My first camera was a 110. The film was a cartridge, which looked like a bar with a period on each end. The film started in one end, and each time you took a picture, you wound the film forward. At the end of the roll, the film would be in the other 'period'. Then you took it out and sent it off for processing. It was exciting when we went to the Corner Store and Lionel told us our pictures were in! Sometimes it took a couple of weeks or a month to get the film back, and many times you forgot what pictures you had taken. You could relive the wonderful things all over again. Of course, there were some times when you'd get your pictures back and find out the roll had been double exposed, or that picture of a lifetime of a famous person was too dark, or worse yet, the person was missing their head. Going through the pictures was like opening a gift- you weren't sure what you would get! Sometime in my early teens, I decided I didn't want to wait the few weeks to get my pictures back, so I took some of my babysitting money and bought myself a Polaroid. I loved watching the picture develop in a matter of minutes. I could see almost instantly if the picture had turned out ok, and in most cases could recreate the picture if I needed to. But the Polaroid was kind of big to carry around, and the film was expensive. In 1992, my sister and I went with our school on a trip to Spain and France. For the previous Christmas, mom bought us a very expensive, top of the line 35mm camera. In her motherly wisdom, knowing that she was buying the camera for two teenagers, she bought the extra warranty, which covered replacement if it was lost. She was so wise! We took the camera to Florida with us in February, to 'practice'. We had the camera when we left NY, and when we got to Florida it was gone. I know we had it by our feet in the car, in case we found anything neat on the way down. We stopped at a rest stop in the middle of the night in one of the Carolinas, and we handed Dad our trash (from snacks and drinks). I suspect the camera mistakenly got picked up with it, and since it was dark, we never realized it. Mom went back to the store, and the camera was replaced at no charge. We used it in Europe. When we got home we gave Dad the film to take to the store, so that we could get it back as soon as possible. When the pictures came back, Mom said she could tell which daughter had the camera at which time. There were rolls of film of cute European boys (my sister) and rolls of film of majestic mountains (me). I upgraded to a digital camera about 3 years ago. I have to say, as exciting as it was to go through the developed pictures, I prefer the instant results I get with the digital camera. I like checking the screen and deciding whether or not the picture is a keeper. I find myself taking more pictures of ordinary things: my yard, weather scenes, things that interest me. The camera is no longer just for vacations. Vacations still provide a great opportunity to take pictures- but I get so caught up taking the pictures I often forget to put myself in the pictures! I couldn't find a reason as to why today is camera day. Maybe we don't need a reason! Just grab your camera and see what you can find in the world around you.