me and my camera

When I was 18 there were two things I wanted more than anything in the world: a car and an SLR camera. My boyfriend, Steve, had both and I was green with envy, so I exploited his superior status and knowledge shamelessly. I remember how he'd cringe as I ground the gears of his beatup Datsun 510 wagon while teaching me to drive a stick, and his patience as he schooled me in the finer points of his hand-me-down Konica Autoreflex T.

I first became obsessed with cameras when I was about 10. My dad had a fixed-focus Kodak 35mm camera and even though he rarely used it (like the stereo), I wasn't allowed to use it either. I was almost as desperate for a camera that Christmas as I was for a puppy, but I knew I actually had a chance of getting the camera so asked for the only model in the Sears Christmas Wish Book that was under $10, a Kodak Instamatic 44. It was love at first sight, flashcubes, 126 cassette film and all. The first thing I photographed was my cat, Bimbo (yes, that really was his name). As you can see by the really fine quality of the photo, an artist was born. I wonder if all those years of looking through a square viewfinder is why I prefer to paint using a square format now?

It wasn't until eight years later that I got my second camera, that lusted-after SLR. I had won $500 in undesignated scholarship money (for art) when I graduated from high school so I rationalized that this was an investment in my future as an artist and went camera shopping. With Steve's advice, and the lure of an F1.7 50mm lens, I bought my Konica Autoreflex TC, the analog SLR I still use today on occasion. It's been across North America, moved countless times and been to the four corners (OK, three anyway) of Europe three and a half times ... and keeps on ticking.

This was the bare-bones camera that taught me about photography and allowed me to take pretty-picture photos like this one of Germany's Mosel Valley. But I'd been taught the lessons of thrift thoroughly and found the cost of having film developed and printed prohibitive, so experimentation was verboten. At university I finally had access to a black and white darkroom which I used whenever possible and before long was working part-time at Japan Camera Centre and doing all my own printing. What a revelation that was to me -- like a 1980s preview of Photoshop! And look at what all that freedom did to my sense of decorum and fashion while sweating it out at the printer! :) (Yes -- those really are lavender highlights in my hair.)

Fast forward to 2005 when I finally got a neat little digital camera, and the world was brand new again. I still love my Fuji Finepix S3100 and it has put up with a lot of punishment these past three years. Here I am in Okotoks, Alberta, in the summer with it in front of my face, as usual. But here's the kicker: I had fallen for the camera that took the picture of me taking a picture of it, Michelle's beautiful Nikon D80, and was ready to throw over my faithful companion for a new love. I was 18 again, playing with it every chance I got, and then some, but I knew this baby was way out of my price range.

A chain of events followed that had me buying the well-used but well-loved body of a similar model, a Nikon D70, from Michelle's dead ex-boyfriend's mother (yeah -- figure that out!), then picking up a 55-200 lens on sale at Best Buy. The sad thing is that I have barely had time to look at it let alone play with it yet, but I already love it. Here is my first day trying it at a sporting event, number one son's U17 soccer game. I had to get a photo of a tree, too, of course.

PS I have a car now, too.