My First Camera Experience

My First Camera Experience

February 17,  2014

One of my earliest childhood memories was waking up early on a weekend morning in Las Vegas. I know it was a weekend because my dad was home from his routine weeklong trips for work that brought him back to Vegas on Friday for the weekend only to fly out again Monday morning. My parents were in their room, probably doing what parents do, while I crept around the living room finding things to move from one spot to another making it impossible for them to find anything. I remember looking up in the kitchen and seeing their Camera (a Canon AE-1 Program).

Having watched them use it multiple times, I decided, I was going to be a big boy and do the same. As I was only three and it was clearly out of my reach on the counter, but when has that ever stopped a kid who wanted a toy. It definitely didn’t stop me. I quietly opened the cabinet door and the adjacent drawer to brace myself as I climbed up on to the counter. I crawled along the counter top making my way to the camera. I remember how heavy it was lifting it up to my face. Looking through the viewfinder everything was blurry so I grabbed the lens and twisted just as I had seen my dad do countless times before surprised when stuff came into focus. I began to look around the kitchen focusing on the different cabinets, the refrigerator, the stove, anything that would make me have to turn the lens to focus and see it (the aperture was at 2.8).

Then I pressed the shutter, surprised at the sound as the curtail fell exposing the film. Entertained, I eagerly pressed it again. Nothing. Fully entertained now I looked at the camera and remembered that after every click my dad would have to move a lever. I struggled to move it but I finally got it extended the whole away, pressed the button again, Click! I was in business!

I continued to repeat steps taking 22 pictures of various items in the kitchen until the lever wouldn’t move anymore. Oh no….. Did I break it? Not sure but not wanting to incriminate myself, I quickly placed the camera back in the same spot it was in and got down from the counter closing my make shift ladder. As I retreated to the living room my younger brother started crying bring my parents out of the room to retrieve him from ours. As my mom passed me in the living room, she was surprised I was a awake as well, she had no idea what I had been up too.

Needless to say they found out the next time they went to use the camera and had to put a new roll in. The developed images were random semi blurry images of plats, cabinets and other items in the kitchen that my mom swears she still has somewhere.

This memory still brings a smile to my face just thinking about it. I have always been interested in photography to a degree in my life. I would always grab the camera to try and capture a moment, friends, family or other events. I was and continue to be drawn to images that surround us daily through magazines, ads and other media sources. An image can have special meaning, evoke emotions, cause controversy, and stir memories. This blog will hopefully aid my search for what it is I truly love to photograph, allowing me to visually describe how I see the world and everything in it.

Cheers,

Danny