I’ve had a camera ever since I can remember. I’ve had some 110 cameras, a disc camera (does anyone remember those??), a number of 35mm cameras and then a whole range of digital cameras.
My dad has always taken lots of great photos, and as a kid I developed a desire to take photos. Maybe this need came from my horrible memory — if I don’t take a photo or write it down, I will not remember it.
In high school, I opted to take Photography as an elective. Unfortunately, the class pulled down my grade point average. In most of my classes, I was in “high honors”, which were weighted at 1.1. Taking an unweighted class and not getting a 100 in it pulled down my grades. As one aiming to be (and eventually being) valedictorian, this was not acceptable. I talked to the teacher about dropping the course — too bad there was no “audit” option in high school. He could see that I loved taking photos, developing photos and creating in the medium, and talked me into sticking with the class. I’m so glad I did.
All through college and grad school, I hauled around my camera. I even bought a second camera body when I finished grad school so I could take pics in both color and B&W! Every so often, I’d take a great photo. But I never got around to taking another photography course.
For years, I hoped to have a darkroom in the house. But the years passed. And now I don’t own a film camera. A darkroom is no longer in my dreams.
I’m ready to take a class. Practice taking better pictures. Learn about some of the software that is taking the place of darkroom techniques. Alas, I’m not finding a great supply of digital photography course locally nor on the interwebs. I’ll keep looking, but for now I’m checking out some hopefully helpful books from the library and experimenting with the settings on my beloved Digital Rebel.
