My journey of a million photos began with a humble Kodak Instamatic camera.
Before Dr Phil redefined all of life’s great milestones as “defining moments”, my mother escorted me and my box full of coins into the local photography shop to buy my very first camera.
A far cry from my current Nikon SLR, my pride and joy was a Kodak Instamatic 56X. These were manufactured from 1972-1977 . It was Simple Simon to operate and all I had to do was press the silver button on top and manually wind the film on. That’s right speaking of film, it used a 126 film cartridge you shoved up its backside. Oh yes! The flash was a disposable plug-in flash cube so it was something reserved for special occasions.
“To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.”
Ansel Adams
Of course, any thought of being able to see your photos in the back of your camera before you paid to have them printed weren’t even considered. Rather, the cartridge was dropped off at the local pharmacy where it was sent off to Kodak for processing while you waited…at least overnight.. I still remember tearing open those packets of precious snaps with such excitement and love.
“It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.“
Henry David Thoreau
Although my precious photos might have been blurry and I’d inadvertantly chopped off subjects’ heads, stuck fingers over the lens and ended up with way to many photos of Baby Alive, the dog and my brother who was fond of showing off, they were still precious…my photos!
“Photography helps people to see.”
Berenice Abbot
While I’m no Ansell Adams, photography is a passion and so often my way of viewing and capturing both the world around me and the poetry within.
I was nominated by Geoff Le Pard fromTanGental for the Five Photos Five Stories blog Share: http://geofflepard.com/2015/06/10/five-photos-five-stories-day-two/
I was nominated to take part in this photo challenge by Ali Issac, who takes the most beautiful images and always has a story to tell about them. I would like to nominate Rowena at BeyondtheFlow, to take up this photo challenge baton.
The rules of the Five Photos, Five Stories Challenge are:
1) Post a photo each day for five consecutive days.
2) Attach a story to the photo. It can be fiction, non-fiction, poetry, or a short paragraph. It’s entirely up to the individual.
3) Nominate another blogger to carry on the challenge. Your nominee is free to accept or decline the invitation. This is fun, not a command performance!
I have decided to nominate Kath Unsworth from Miniscule Moments whose illustrations and photos are breathtaking and really worth a look: http://kathunsworth.com/
Do you have any special photographic beginnings you would like to share?
xx Rowena
Beyond the Flow 
Congrats on the nomination. Well deserved. I think everyone (of a certain age) started out with a film camera. Your recollection of yours caused me to smile inside and out at my own feeble attempts as an even bigger novice ‘back then.’ Happy mid-week. ❤
I started with my grandfather’s Kodak Box Brownie in about 1956
Love this one. I too started with the Instamatic. I won it in a spelling bee in 1964 and kept it until my first SLR..a Canon AT1. I had that thing in my family’s face until I left home. ☺ I wish I had a picture like yours, so sweet.
Thanks very much. I have a feeling my grandfather might have taken this as my parents took veryt few photos, as seemed to be the case “back in the day”. I had a Canon SLR for awhile there which I’d picked up at the school fete. It was an excellent camera and fully manual. UNfortunately, while I was at uni and living in what was your conventional student hovel in the form of a somewhat renovated terrace house, I was burgled and lost a lot of precious things. They also took my formal dresses….grrr!