The Long Road to Here

Kodak DuaflexII

I posed a question on my Creative Journey blog about my purpose in photography. And how I would sum up in 150 words my objective in this often on and off love of mine. Consider it a 150 word artistic mission statement. And as I have found before sometimes to know where you are going you have to know where you have been.

The Kodak Duaflex II camera above was not my first camera. I seem to remember a Brownie box camera that had been my mother's and then an Instamatic which I asked for as a Christmas present. My parents saw both of those cameras as tests. You take care of these and we will see, sort of test. Dad believed in getting us kids anything that furthered our interest in hobbies and arts. And because these were his interests he got himself the top of the line in rods and reels, cameras, leather work tools, etc. When he upgraded we got the cast offs which he had always taken the best of care with.

So when I was off to college and needed something other than the Instamatic for my photography courses he gave me the old Duaflex.

Camera view finder and case

It had seen and recorded Rome when I was just a baby so it was old when I got it but tried and true. I think my instructor coveted it while I coveted my father's new Leica. I got that when he bought the Cannon.

Soon after I upgraded to my first Pentax which was my first single lens reflex camera but entirely manual. I had learned photography on manual cameras and so when I bought my second Pentax which was automatic I never quite trusted it and used the manual over ride much of the time. Pentax one and two got me into the collecting lenses photographer hobby. All the above, by the way, were film cameras. Pentax number two broke on a Caribbean cruise which I finished up with the cardboard box disposable Kodak cameras. No way was I spending my vacation without a camera.

Once back on shore I started looking for a new Pentax while mine was being repaired, but they had changed their mount making the lenses I had not compatible with their newer models.

Then life got busy. The company I worked for moved me around so often it was hard to drop off film to pick up later. There was a divorce and the death of two parents. Digital was being touted as the way to go and a friend gave me a cast off digital Cannon fixed lens and viewer on the back. It was light, easy, fit in my purse. I hated it so I went out and bought myself a Nikon SLR film camera. I had money if not time so I got a couple expensive lenses too. To avoid forgetting where I dropped off my film I sent it in mailers to Seattle Photo Works. But when Nikon broke into the digital SLR world I jumped.

To sum up there was hardly ever a time I did not have a camera since I was about six. However, there have been times I was not sure where I put it. Months would go by without using it or I considered it just a tool to take photos of my masks and then my paintings or the places I wanted to paint. Then came the second Thelma and Louise road trip with my sister to Utah. She had a Sony digital camera and I had my Nikon film camera. I didn't get to see my pictures until I returned home and picked up the mail. That was 2004 and I have never forgotten where my camera is since. On the 2008 Thelma and Louise boat trip on Lake Powell I had the Nikon D70 and a laptop for immediate downloads. Debbie had her first Cannon digital SLR.

Okay, that is way more than 150 words. Reduce that to, "I have always had a camera." That leaves me with 144 words for why. Because a picture is worth 1000 words? And I have always been a rotten speller?