Why I Became Intersted In Photography
The Simple Camera Period
Photography equipment has evolved like computer technology has.. but over a much
longer period of time. My first camera was a little pocket Kodak instamatic camera
that used a c126 cartridge to hold the film on both sides of the roll. The advantage
to this was the exposed film would not be damaged if the camera was accidentally
opened. The drawback was the film was only 12.6 mm wide. It was fixed everything
(exposure-wise) and was fine for snapshooters, but suffered on the clarity. I did
no tralize this until I compared a photo taken with it to the same scene with a
35mm camera. I was sold on the 35 mm camera style.
Upgrading To 35mm
I purchased a Minolta XG-A camera with a 50mm and 135mm lens.
 The first thing I
had to deal with is… loading film. The old instamatic was a drop the cartridge in
and go. This camera required me to pull film around the take-up reel, close the
back, and wind it by taking “photos” until the red mark on the dial disappeared.
I also had to make sure the winder moved as I advances the film… otherwise, I had
not loaded it properly.
The camera was an automatic exposure compensation camera based upon the aperture
I used in the photo. It was a manual focus camera, so I lost photos trying to focus
the exposure. I learned more about photography with this camera than any other cameri
I have owned since. There are a lot of times today, I still take the camera off
“green-mode” and manually expose the picture to get what I desired.
After a few months of using the camera, I upgraded to an 80-200mm zoom lens and
a better strobe (or flash for you non-photographers) The zoom lens was an emerging
technology, and many purists did not like them. Instead they carried 15 different
fixed lenses to cover the range. I could not tell the difference between the zoom
and a fixed lens, so I was satisfied with the zoom. As zoom lens technology improved,
the professionals moved to them, also. I also added a polarizing filter for outside
photography, and a few gadget filters for experimentation. Some filters were better
than others.
Later, I purchased a Canon Rebel S camera, and two zoom lenses..
 35-80mm and 75-300mm,
which I still use today. This new system did everything for me, so all I need to
do is “point-and-shoot!” The advantage to the new camera was speed when I was taking
action shots. The camera would focus on the subject, set the “correct” exposure,
and advance the film, so I could shoot more. It could even take as many as nine
photos when I pushed the exposure button so I could get show the action, frame-by-frame.
The Digital Age
Finally, the digital age appeared, and I
 finally went digital with the Canon EOS
10D. It was expensive, at first, to buy, but the cost of film and development was
a big savings!. On a typical trip, I would shoot nearly 25 rolls of film in a week.
Now I just uploaded them to a computer, pick out the good ones, and print them.
I finally added an 18-40mm zoom lens to the collection.
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