Walking It Old School

So, I was thinking. Several months ago actually. Why not go back into film? Get back to the roots of the whole thing. Or as some of my friends have said, "Step back a bit from the dark side". I was looking for an old school camera on my China trip, but no such luck. I did stumble across an older Minolta though about a month or so ago. A Minolta X-370 with a 50mm 1.7 lens. All you techies out there will understand what I am talking about.

Anyway. here's the results of my first roll I put through it. Starting with the bad and working my way up. Or down as the case may be.




















I think that will do for the day.

A Step Back

Before I go forward, let's take a step back. A step back you say? Yes, where are we coming from would be a good place to start. I haven't always just been taking pictures with a digital camera. In fact I have had a couple of types of cameras. I remember the days of polaroids and film. Technology has brought us a long way from the 70's and 80's, well as I remember. I have enjoyed taking pictures for fun, and they have documented where and what I was doing in my past.

My first camera was a 110 film camera. Just a step up from a pinhole. I am sure most of you remember what they looked like. Small, flat, and pocket carriable. The good ones had a flash attachment, but they were all manual. Auto focus? Well focus of any kind was none existent. The type of flash was a cube with 4 flashes that pivoted and was set off by a pin that hit a wire and set off the magnesium fuzz in the flash. I had a lot of fun playing with the camera, and the flash cubes. Maybe when I have the time, energy, and equipment, I will find some of my 110's and scan them to post to show what I was seeing. I warn you a lot of them were blurry. No focus remember. They were great cameras for kids and sometimes for travelling.

My next camera I picked up in about late 88 or early 89. I got it just before I went overseas on peace keeping. This camera had an auto focus, built in flash, and was a 35mm film camera. I abused that poor sucker and picked up an interesting quirk. The back door couldn't stay closed, so it ended up being taped most of the time. It was a battery hog of course, but it was so much fun. I took it with me all over Cyprus, all across Canada an it was a joy to use. I have pictures of planes, new and old, my army days, my trekkie days, and of my marriage time. Of course I have lost a lot of pictures that I took. Sometimes I didn't get the film developed when I was finished shooting a roll of film. Of course I never knew what I was getting either. The main draw back of a film camera. Then the camera finally gave up the ghost and I wandered lacking a camera to document what I was seeing. Through moves, and my divorce, a lot of my pictures went missing or were thrown out. Some I have scanned, and I will update this posting with my 35mm pictures. Be warned, they are silly and involve a lot of alcohol. At least they are all SFW.

So until next time. When I step forward to just a few years ago and start with my current portfolio of pictures, and reasoning for what I am doing.

PaladinPhil

Update: Two pictures added from the times I was talking about. I am in one of them. Guess which one.