It was a beautiful camera and required actual film.
If you don’t know what film is
you may ask your parents because they will remember.
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I was very careful about the number of photographs I took back then because each roll of film that I bought allowed only 24 photos per roll.
For important events I bought several rolls of film, put them in my pockets and became quite adept at changing the rolls of film quickly.
I could buy both color film and black-and-white film and decide when I finished each roll which kind to use next. Things were not like they are today when every photo you take with a digital camera is “whatever you see” and black and white comes about by editing.
Black-and-White film in a nice camera produced wonderful images. I love these early images made from film better than many of the digital images I get today.
Don’t ask me why.
While I am talking about the past, I will talk about my purpose for this post. My purpose is to look back, not too far, but far enough to make sure that each of you remember each other long before you looked the way you look today. In fact, when these photographs were taken, most of you weren’t even born yet.
How is that for looking back?
You have probably guessed that
these two little children are Zane and Ivy.
They were 9 and 11 when these pictures were taken.
They are now grown-ups.
When I took these photographs so many years ago, I was just beginning to think about photography in a journalistic way and so I was delighted with the clarity of these black and white photos and the stories they told.
Some people might wonder why I took black and white pictures in Snow Canyon near St. George when I could have taken bright, color pictures filled with blazing sun and red rock.
Why?
Because I had been reading about the power of black-and-white versus color for telling stories and studying other people’s photographs. It seemed that black and white forced us to focus on the story rather than on surroundings. I am not as distracted when I take photos this way.
Now and then I still browse other people’s black-and-white photographs on the Internet. I am not drawn so much to the artsy, extreme photographs but rather, I am drawn to the stories which effective photography tells so well.
Even though I have learned some things over the years, I admit that I have become careless about conserving the shots I take and very greedy about having unlimited photos to choose from which has caused me to be less concerned with the quality of each shot.
Taking more black and white photographs and being more careful with my choices is on my short list of things to work on. I can put my current Canon camera on a Black and White Mode which will give me a greater chance of taking photos that look like the film versions of many years ago.
Expect to see more “old” photographs from me in the future. You know by now that if there are children around, I have a camera and that means I have wonderful photographs of you right now AND when you were very, very small.
