Remembering How it All Began | My Photography Beginnings | Brownie Starflash

My First Camera

Do you remember the beginnings of what help you to become who you are today? Do you remember the times that got you passionate about what you do, and how it all started? For me it’s a bit sentimental, but still a powerful memory of how photography became such an important part of who I am today.

When I was very young, maybe seven or eight, I was with my parents visiting my grandparents’ home. My grandfather had taken quite a few photos in his day along with a few of me and my parents. Sadly my grandfather passed away when I was only three, so unfortunately, I didn’t get a chance to know him well at all. Thankfully, my father was still very close to his mother and my family visited her at her home often.

Since my late grandfather was a photography hobbyist he had a few cameras in his collection. It was an exciting time back then with the high-tech American space program in full launch (no pun intended), and with my gadget-itis in an early effect, playing with a camera seemed like a cool thing indeed. Of course, back in yesteryear, there were only film cameras – you pretty much had to get it more or less right in the camera. The camera was just sitting in a box of my grandfathers old belongings and I thought it was pretty sweet. It had buttons and hinges, and a shiny flash reflector. The film it used was and odd size (size 127), but that didn’t really matter. As all I wanted to do was to start taking photos. It was an old Brownie Starflash.

The camera was from the late 1950′s, and was very old school. Nothing fancy, just a viewfinder, shutter button, a color or B&W button, and a flash that took actual bulbs. Unfortunately, I don’t have the camera anymore. I’m sure it was discarded or given to Goodwill many years ago. It would make a nice sentimental piece in my small personal film camera collection (I’ll be showing more of them in the future.) The Brownie Starflash was where it all started for me. Do you remember which one started your photographic journey?

Note: The cool vector graphic of the Starflash up-top is found from at an artist’s who is called Stinky9. I’ve used the Starflash icon as a replacement icon for Aperture on my Mac. It’s kind of like remembering old-times down there on the dock I guess.