My History of Photography

The first thing I remember about cameras is that my father had one.   In fact he had several during his life, including what I believe was an 8mm movie camera.  He shot family holidays or church and school events.   Other people around me had cameras, but I wasn’t curious.  

In fact, I didn’t have my own camera until I was 27 years old.  I bought a point-and-shoot Vivitar before leaving for Japan in the summer of 1988.   Once there I took the equivalent of my father’s snapshots and made prints to send back home to illustrate letters about my life in Japan.  Otherwise, I wasn’t really interested in playing with the camera.  I gave that Vivitar to a student in the early 00’s after I went digital.  That purchase changed my relationship to the camera.  I could take as many photos as I wanted without regard to developing costs, and share as many as I wanted without regard to printing. 

Another turning point came on a trip to Sri Lanka.  On a sunset walk along the Lanka seashore, I managed to take the Galle fort in silhouette against the evening sky.  I did this using the camera’s preset features for capturing images in low light.  When I saw the result on my computer a week later, I had my first inkling of the possibility of capturing arresting images, and confirmation that by fiddling with the controls I could produce more interesting results.