For pretty much my entire adult life I have wanted to own a proper camera. Growing up, my dad was a freelance photographer. He would do family portraits, graduation photos, weddings, and nature photos. The nature photos were (and still are) his favorite, but he doesn't get out to take photos as much as he used to.
Growing up we had a dark room in our house. It started in the garage when I was very young, but my parents eventually added an addition to the house and when they did that he carved out a special space for his darkroom. That darkroom is now his office where he sits at his computer managing his very intricate Microsoft Flight Simulator setup. He basically has a full plane cockpit in his office!
My dad is color blind, so our darkroom was black and white only. That doesn't mean we didn't take color photos, we just had to send those out to someplace to get process. Back before the days where you could just go to the drug store and get them processed, you had to send them out to a lab.
Credit where it is due, my post today is inspired by this post by @ericvancewalton and some of the memories it gave me being surrounded by photography. In fact, this would probably be a good post for his #memoirmonday initiative, if it actually fit one of the prompts!
Sorry, back to my story. Black and white film on the other hand we processed ourselves right at home. I can still remember the smells and sounds from the darkroom as he would work in there. It was almost like magic watching a plain white piece of paper come to life as it hit the chemicals and the image started to form on it.
Sadly, when we were younger photography is something my sister bonded with my dad more than I did. It wasn't until I got older that I really started exploring my love for the craft.
The photo above is the first camera my dad ever owned. It was purchased for him by his parents. It was a surprise to him because they really didn't have a lot of money. Something like this was a definite luxury more than a necessity.
From what I could tell online, it was a pretty standard and common camera for that period. You could get them at Sears, Roebuck & Co. as it was their house brand. Thinks "members mark" at Walmart or "Amazon Essentials". Similar to today, the cameras were made by different manufacturers to certain specifications and then branded as Tower.
It is only recently that this camera came back into my dad's possession via his parents. Very nice that they held onto it for so long. I'm guessing he had either outgrown it or forgotten to take it with him by the time he headed off to Vietnam.
As far back as I can remember my dad has always been a Nikon guy. The F3 in the photo above was his bread and butter. It had a motor drive on it and I'm not kidding you when I say that thing weighed close to ten pounds with a full zoom lens on it. I was always terrified of dropping it and breaking it anytime I had to handle it.
He also had a Mamiya RB67. If you aren't sure what that is, just go ahead and Google it. It's a medium format camera. In the most simplistic terms, just imagine medium format equals more megapixels than the standard 35mm you may have grown up with, although I am sure there is much more to it than that.
As we got older my dad sold his RB and bought us all (my mom, sister, and myself). My mom and sister both got nice camera bodies where you could change out the lenses, and I got a Nikon fixed focus point and shoot camera. I have photos from pretty much every state East of the Mississippi with that camera.
I went a long time without owning a camera at all, then when I moved out I bought a FujiFilm bridge camera like the one you see third from the left in the photo above. That camera was only 3 Megapixels with a max of 6 after some fancy onboard processing by Fuji, but it still takes some of the best photos I have ever seen.
The opening photo was taken with that Fuji camera. It doesn't hurt that my niece was such a great model at the time. I honestly don't think I have a single bad photo of her to be honest.
My dad also picked up an updated Mamiya 645 somewhere along the way, but he ended up selling it I can't remember when.
Now, all of those Nikons and Mamiya's are long gone. With the advent of digital photography the value in the dropped pretty significantly. It's crazy how much digital has disrupted the photography sector. I remember when I was a kid if a photo wasn't quite right my dad had to send it out to a lab and artists would actually retouch the photo by hand. Now, you simply click a button and AI takes care of it. I'll be posting a bit more about that tomorrow.
My dad does have a proper Nikon DSLR camera that he takes out from time to time. He's even been asked to take some wedding photos again. In fact, my cousin's kid is getting married and they are asking all the guests not to take photos during the wedding (besides the hired photographer). However, they told my dad he was the exception to that rule because they know he knows what he is doing.
Don't get me wrong, I think my Pixel 8 Pro takes some pretty dang good photos, but something has me itching to throw four AA batteries back in my Fuji sitting her on the floor and seeing what I can do with it. You better believe I will have that thing in full black and white mode.
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Great post! Short, sweet, and teeming with nostalgia. I love that your grandparents saved your father's first camera, and that he has it back. Your first photo is very intriguing. You may not have had the interest back in the day, but you got the talent.
I think this post would work for the prompt about fathers.
Thank you, I appreciate that! I'm pretty proud of that first photo too. Like I said though, she has always made it easy to take good pictures!
Classic film cameras are making a comeback! I have clients now paying a premium to have photos shot on film along with digital. The most popular for us has been medium format (I have a Pentax 645n). Clients are now loving the texture and softness that film has to offer. Also, strangely enough, we see a real resurgence in the 16-20 year old age bracket. They are buying film point and shoot cameras and burning through 35mm film. They love slow exposure, blurry images, often out of focus. We laugh as what was once seen as poor photography, is now what a younger generation is in love with, lol. I'm shooting 2 to 3 rolls of medium format film about every week now along with our digital. Fun times.
That is pretty funny. It sounds a lot like the resurgence or continuation of vinyl records that have blown up lately. That blurry and out of focus just has me rolling on the floor. It's quite interesting how art changes over the years. I don't think I am going to be going back to film anytime soon, but I definitely need to go back to some black and white stuff.
Film isn't cheap either....a roll of medium format by the time we buy the film, send it for professional development and high res scanning (because everyone wants digital scans :D) is about $50 a roll by the time we are done.....and they line up to pay for it. I'm amazed...but here to serve :)
Wow, that is pretty crazy! I get it though. It's interesting how we just keep flipping back and forth between different mediums. Fashion is kind of the same way and I am really starting to realize that the older I get... The good thing is my flannel shirts are cool to wear again now.
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Great post and great photos. The post brings back so many memories. I remember the first camera my dad got was a gift from a good friends who had returned from his trip to Russia. It was all in Russian, including the manual and we probably never used all its advantages. But it was a good camera which took a lot of our childhood photos. At the time buying point and shoot sleek cameras were in vogue, as they were economical and very small, but we did not have the disposable income for it.
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Another thing I remember from those days is that film, and processing, being costly my dad had one simple rule. He did not mind us kids using the camera to click photos when on vacation or during parties, but we had to have at least one human being in the shot.
So when I tried weird shots of plants out of focus or eggs under light, he was not a happy camper :D
It was a fun camera though and if things had not gone digital I might have learned how to process the print to try and keep using it.
Thanks for the memories mate.
Haha, that is pretty interesting the rule about having at least one person in the shot. It makes sense, but I can see how it would have been hard to follow. That is a cool camera for sure! I still remember my old Instamatic. It was a cool little unit.
The old cameras are wicked cool. I’d love to buy a mirror less digital camera but they are mad expensive
Yeah, that's the way it usually goes isn't it? You need to get your workshop built first, then you can think about cameras!
I sure do, and i need to make some more money before it gets done to pay for it as well.
My dad has always been keen on photography. I remember he had a twin lens reflex camera that was cool as you looked down at a screen instead of through a normal viewfinder. He just did it all for fun. I've always had a camera, but not got seriously into it. I mostly use my phone, but my bridge camera is useful at times. We are just overwhelmed with photos now unlike when we had to consider what was worth capturing as each print had a cost.
That is true, we definitely take a lot more photos these days than we used to in the past. That sounds like a cool camera he had. As much as I want a DSLR, I have zero complaints about my bridge camera.
It was something like this. I don't think he has it any more.
Oh yeah, I think I have something like that down in my basement from my wife's grandpa. I am going to have to go through and look sometime.
Cool ... I like this old film cameras 😅👌👌👌☕☕☕ .... digital film cameras can give lot good folm photos ... I think nikon can work good too 😅👌👌👌☕
Sad that I have not taken yet film camera up 😅👌☕
Apparently they are making a comeback!
True 😋👌👌 ... lot them fill have bigger price also soon . 🤭👌👌☕☕
Yes they do!
Nothing really can replace a really good camera. Smartphones are so convenient, but for quality you need the real deal!
Very cool story about your dad, does he have a pilots license?
No, he doesn't. His eyes aren't good enough for him to get one, but he could probably fly better than a lot of people out there. I need to get a DSLR one day. Maybe after the next bull run.
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