How old were you when you took your first photo? Were you old enough to have learned some of the controls? Were you learning to be a photographer? Or were you a little kid, holding your mother’s camera and trying to press the shutter without wobbling?
Do you even remember?
I don’t remember. I know that my very first photo must have been about the time I was 5. I do remember being allowed to take photos with my mother’s camera now and then, when she had it out at parties or events.
What I remember distinctly is being in about 5th grade and having my own Mickey Mouse camera, which used the kind of film that used to come in a cartidge that looked like a bar with a reel on each end. I remember playing outside with one of the neighborhood kids; the camera was ready at my eye, and as she came running around the side of the house, I tripped the shutter.
That is the first time I can consciously recall making a photograph.
I can still remember how excited I was to see that photo. I remember reaching into the envelope full of prints and pulling them out, searching until I found that shot. It full of motion blur from my attempt at panning, but there was my friend, mid-stride, and damn was I excited to see that I had been able to take a moment and capture it just the way I saw it.
The lessons all came later. But the love for the art seems to have been there since the start; perhaps that’s the way it is.
I wish I had that photo with me now. But it has suffered the fate of so many negative strips and slides and 4×6 prints – it is tucked away in a shoebox somewhere in my old bedroom at my parent’s house.
These are the moments that define us, that we carry with us through our lives. In the tens of thousands of photos I’ve taken since that summer day, there are a handfull of other moments that stand out. And each one marks a different starting point.
Someday, I should gather those images together and frame them.
NOTE – After writing this post, I discovered that I actually had another of these photos tucked away on my harddrive. It’s a scan of a 4×6 print, taken with the Kodak P&S I got from my mom. I was at least 16 when I took this, because I remember pulling over on the side of the road and leaning out the passenger window to shoot it. This is the first time I can remember seeing something in nature, visualizing the shot, and then returning with the camera to make the photo. That’s big stuff!
