From Brownie to Digital..a Camera tale.

   Photography has always been something I have loved. My Mother gave me a used Brownie Box camera in 1967 for my birthday.  It taught me a lot about things like heads and feet and saving money to get film developed and to buy more film.  It was an El cheapo even if it hadn't been used but I still smile at some of the old Photos I have from it.

 Then years later I saved and scrimped and bought a very good camera with several lenses. An Olympus OM-10. 1 wide angle lens and a telephoto lens. I treated this camera like western gear, it went with me everywhere and i have to admit a lot of places a camera of quality should not go!

 

I had that camera from 1981 until my camera repair man told me it really was not worth repairing in 2004! It took photos of everything from weddings to grizzly bear, farm equipment to eclipse's of the moon It documented my life, both good and bad and followed me all over the country. It was loaded into saddle bags with my lunch when I was a range rider, it sat on the truck seat beside me when I hauled hay in from the fields. I so enjoyed learning how to use it and its viewfinder saw so much change in my life and the world around it.

In 2004 I went Digital with the purchase of a Fuji Finepix S700. It was a perfect camera for me to learn about digital with and it gave  me the feel of SLR with the wonderful instant picture of the digital.

This image of the Yellow Rose bush outside my house was one of the first digital photos I ever took!  

I took this photo on a cold morning in Great Falls Montana at the Giant Springs Park...the little Fuji didn't mind being cold and I think the goose was keeping his feet warm in the water from the springs!  I was always amazed at how close the zoom brought the item I was  focusing on in!  It did take me a long time to get used to using the display screen not the viewfinder and I still to this day have some issues  with that process!

I often used the Fuji at work to  record some of the big loads that were hauled through the Truck stop. Here is a Huge Michigan loader destined for a mine to the west.


The Fuji is still working but it no longer recognizes its flash function. The sad thing  about this age of throw away is it is more expensive to fix it than buy a new Camera. 

Christmas of 2012 saw me come up in the digital world with a wonderful Christmas present!  A Nikon Coolpix P510, this is an awesome camera with a lot more bells and whistles than I have figured out yet. Zoom, GPS, Wide Angle and panoramic are just a few of its features!

Now this camera is really good and I am so enjoying it. Light and easy to hold it takes great photos and has some pretty neat features...like the Art effect...I can make photos I  have taken look like paintings...okay I am easily amused!

The daffodils out in front of the house were victimized in this fashion!

 

A Lady Cardinal in snow...wondering why the grass is covered up....I so love the zoom lens to capture these elusive birds!

It has been an interesting journey with my camera's and I love the memories they have put to paper and into albums over the years. I do miss some of the anticipation of picking up my photos at the drugstore to see how they turned out but then there is the trade off of  "Knowing" they have turned out!

Thanks for the memories Brownie to Digital...I look forward to many more saved and looked back upon.