I often think back to the life-changing events of the past and what it might have been like to be a part of that history. Johannes Gutenberg began work on his movable type printing press in 1436, and his work in printing the Bible helped change the world for future generations. Carl Benz debuted his three-wheeled gasoline vehicle in 1885 and the transportation shift from trains to cars would be transformed. Wilbur and Orville Wright ushered in the prospect of long-distance and international travel with their first airplane flights in 1903. Digital computers as we know them today appeared in the early 1940's following mechanical computer efforts over a century before. Today we can't think of life without these inventions.
1888 Benz automobile
As I pondered this thought even more, I realized that there are many of us today who have witnessed colossal changes in even shorter periods of time. Ever heard of a smartphone? All three of my sons were born before the Simon Personal Communicator was introduced by IBM in 1992. The Blackberry was the next big thing in smartphones, showing up on the scene in 1999. But the game-changer was the iPhone that took the world by storm in 2007 and hasn't let up since. I remember seeing that first iPhone and wondering who would ever buy such a thing. Today there's hardly a corner of the world that hasn't seen the smartphone being used by so many people for so many purposes.
Cameras fall into this same grouping. In 1888 George Eastman came out with the first box camera simply called the Kodak. A couple years later the Brownie was unveiled for taking "snapshots" and mass market photography was underway. When 35mm film took over in the early 1900's it allowed for multiple exposures on one roll before you had to send it for development. While there were other niche cameras that vied for consumer acceptance—including Polaroid, Disc, Instant, Disposable, and Medium Format—the 35mm cameras came to dominate the market. It was this world I found myself in as I started life as a teenager.
I was given a Yashica manual 35mm camera at age thirteen by my aunt and uncle and learned to manually focus the lens while manually choosing the aperture and shutter speed. In many ways those early photos seemed more pleasing and well exposed than what you see today. Or perhaps it was that one thought they were better because of all the effort expended just to take one photo. I ran many rolls of film through it in Photography class in high school, usually the black and white variety. There we learned to get the film out of the cartridge in the dark, develop the film in the dark, and print up photo enlargements in the relative dark. And you wondered why they called it the dark room?
I used it during the first years of college, taking photos for the yearbook or photos of the couples at spring banquet. It wasn't like I was the only one at college with a camera but I was one of the few who had a 35mm and was well-versed in using it. Even back then Canon and Nikon were the cameras of choice but such were not in the budget for a college student. But I imagined that some day I might get a camera like the Canon AE-1. That was my dream.
Yashica 35 Manual
I was given a Yashica manual 35mm camera at age thirteen by my aunt and uncle and learned to manually focus the lens while manually choosing the aperture and shutter speed. In many ways those early photos seemed more pleasing and well exposed than what you see today. Or perhaps it was that one thought they were better because of all the effort expended just to take one photo. I ran many rolls of film through it in Photography class in high school, usually the black and white variety. There we learned to get the film out of the cartridge in the dark, develop the film in the dark, and print up photo enlargements in the relative dark. And you wondered why they called it the dark room?
Canon AE-1
I used it during the first years of college, taking photos for the yearbook or photos of the couples at spring banquet. It wasn't like I was the only one at college with a camera but I was one of the few who had a 35mm and was well-versed in using it. Even back then Canon and Nikon were the cameras of choice but such were not in the budget for a college student. But I imagined that some day I might get a camera like the Canon AE-1. That was my dream.
Yashica Electro 35
That first Yashica lasted nearly ten years until my next gifted camera, the Yashica Electro 35, courtesy of my eventual father-in-law. That one had automatic exposure so all one had to do was focus. I used this one for probably another ten years, through the end of college and on into early married life. I have a photographic record of the early years of our boys and our family because of this camera. I became the family photographer much like my mother, which is why she and I are rarely in family photographs from those years. I acquired a tripod from somebody and an automatic shutter release timer from somebody else and soon I was in some of the family photos. Oh sure, I still had to arrange everybody else to fit into the frame, mark out a spot for me to stand, set the 15 second timer, run like a maniac into the aforementioned spot, and then tell everyone to smile and keep their eyes open until the shutter clicked. But at least I was now in the photo for the record. What was the record? All those photo albums where you stored all the photos, never to be seen again!
Around the end of the 1980's I decided to upgrade to an SLR, or Single-Lens Reflex camera. Those two early Yashicas had been viewfinder cameras, where you looked through the viewfinder off to the left of the lens and saw an approximation of what you would get on film. It was frustrating for a fine photographer like myself to frame up a photo in the viewfinder only to find someone's head chopped off when the photos came back from development. An SLR showed you exactly what you would get because you were looking straight through the lens right up until pressing the shutter. I ended up purchasing—wait for it!—a Yashica 200-AF because it was cheaper than a Canon or Nikon and there were rebates available and because I was an Andreasen. We just don't spend money needlessly. But those two letters at the end of the model name said it all. Auto Focus. Press the shutter and the lens turned and whirred as it focused in the center of the lens. Since it also set aperture and shutter speed it was a totally automatic camera. I got an extra telephoto lens, a plug-in flash, and a camera bag and I felt like a professional photographer.
Fast forward ahead a dozen or so years to 2001 and my wife and I are planning a trip to Europe to visit our friends, Ken and Marianne Barickman, who lived in Brussels, Belgium, at the time. The highlight of the trip would be a one day trip to Paris. Yes, the one in France and not the one in Illinois. I've been to the one in Illinois, just not as memorable as visiting the one in France. I would take this camera with me along with 3 rolls of 24 exposure film. By squeezing in one extra photo per roll that meant I planned on taking 75 photos during my time there. Two weeks. Brussels. Paris. Amsterdam. Bruges. Antwerp. Aachen. Nivelles. Let that sink in for just a bit. Two weeks, 75 photos. Why was I so tight-fisted with the film on the trip of a lifetime? For those who remember those days, it cost a bunch of money to make photos. If you bought the best film and got it developed at the best places it would cost you $25 or more per roll, and I had three of them. It was costing me plenty for the trip as it was and taking photos was the least of my priorities. In today's social media conscious society, such would be unthinkable. But this was a different time and taking photos was seen as more of a luxury than a necessity. Did I mention I'm an Andreasen and I'm cheap?
In the end I took 25 photos in Paris, meaning I took only one full roll with me to Paris and allowed myself only that one. While I did get photos of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arch of Triumph, and our evening dinner eating outside at a café on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees just a couple blocks from the Arc de Triomphe all lit up in the center of the city, I only got one of each. If your eyes were closed, too bad so sad. Because of the dearth of photos with which to remember that trip, it remains mostly just fond memories of a great time in another part of the world. Don't discount memories! Sometimes they are even better than the actual happenings, like Kathy's retelling of the Paris pickpocket story versus the actual event. But this is also why I told Myric to take as many photos as she could when she and Jon took a trip to Paris many years later. I think she took nearly 2,000 photos including many of the places I didn't get to see, like the Louvre. Because of her photos I was able to take another trip down memory lane back to one of the best places we ever visited.
Not long afterwards you began hearing about digital cameras being developed for consumer sales. Once again I couldn't imagine anyone actually buying one of these things. But once again I was wrong. You might say I am not an early adopter. In 2003 sales of digital cameras surpassed analog cameras and never looked back. My first digital camera was a pocket sized Canon Powershot, one that I bought for a week trip to the Big Apple and Niagara Falls with our Australian friends Craig and Missy in 2005. Being that he was truly a photographer and had awesome equipment I tried to learn from him. And I got some awesome photos on that trip.
When the iPhone came out in 2007 it was an instant success, more so for its camera and apps than for its phone capabilities. Apple really should have called it the iCamera or the iTexter. In the years since then cell phone manufacturers have seemingly spent more time improving the cameras contained in the phone than they have in improving the sound quality or reception of the phone itself. The cell phone camera has become such a deeply ingrained part of our lives that we now take thousands of photos of everything under the sun. There are now so many folks with their phone cameras at weddings that the professional photographers are constantly getting their photos ruined with the interlopers. Probably every dish ever offered for breakfast, lunch, or dinner has been photographed and placed online for all to see. And of course, there are the social media sites that allow us to share our lives with our families or perhaps everyone on the planet.
Over the course of fifty-some years, I went from a used 35mm manual camera, to an auto exposure 35mm camera, to a fully automatic 35mm camera, to numerous iterations of digital cameras which culminated in the Canon 60D, and then on to numerous cell phones with cameras of varying quality. It took 40 years but my college goal of getting a professional level Canon camera was finally realized. To say it takes amazing photos would be an understatement. It far surpasses anything I ever had previous to it. That's why I stopped upgrading. I finally found the camera that will serve me well for years to come. Sadly, most of the photos that I take today are with whatever cell phone I have with me at the moment. The DSLR is a large and heavy piece of equipment and not inconspicuous, so it's much simpler to put the cell phone in your pocket for when you need it.
In that time period of taking photos, I have witnessed the camera that had served as a pricey and complicated tool for professionals transition into a handy and simple tool for everyone. While I still have my memories of good times gone by, I do appreciate the chance to scroll through the camera roll on my cell phone for thousands of photos of events I can appreciate anytime. At the moment I have 15,000 photos on my cell phone which include all the photos from all my previous cell phones. I have 25,000 photos from the five digital cameras I have used over the past fifteen years. And there are 75,000 photos in the Pictures folder of my desktop computer. I suppose there is some overlap in all of that but it would be safe to say I have over 100,000 digital photos that I've taken in those fifteen years. I've never counted all the photos in the photo albums or checked the negatives in the plastic sleeves but I'd imagine it would only be several thousand photos over those first thirty-fives years of film cameras. You have to be determined to hunt down one particular photo among the dozens of albums in the numerous boxes. I have made it a point to scan as many printed photos as possible since those printed photos continue to deteriorate with age. At least then they will still be available for future generations of the family.
Yashica 200-AF
Around the end of the 1980's I decided to upgrade to an SLR, or Single-Lens Reflex camera. Those two early Yashicas had been viewfinder cameras, where you looked through the viewfinder off to the left of the lens and saw an approximation of what you would get on film. It was frustrating for a fine photographer like myself to frame up a photo in the viewfinder only to find someone's head chopped off when the photos came back from development. An SLR showed you exactly what you would get because you were looking straight through the lens right up until pressing the shutter. I ended up purchasing—wait for it!—a Yashica 200-AF because it was cheaper than a Canon or Nikon and there were rebates available and because I was an Andreasen. We just don't spend money needlessly. But those two letters at the end of the model name said it all. Auto Focus. Press the shutter and the lens turned and whirred as it focused in the center of the lens. Since it also set aperture and shutter speed it was a totally automatic camera. I got an extra telephoto lens, a plug-in flash, and a camera bag and I felt like a professional photographer.
Fast forward ahead a dozen or so years to 2001 and my wife and I are planning a trip to Europe to visit our friends, Ken and Marianne Barickman, who lived in Brussels, Belgium, at the time. The highlight of the trip would be a one day trip to Paris. Yes, the one in France and not the one in Illinois. I've been to the one in Illinois, just not as memorable as visiting the one in France. I would take this camera with me along with 3 rolls of 24 exposure film. By squeezing in one extra photo per roll that meant I planned on taking 75 photos during my time there. Two weeks. Brussels. Paris. Amsterdam. Bruges. Antwerp. Aachen. Nivelles. Let that sink in for just a bit. Two weeks, 75 photos. Why was I so tight-fisted with the film on the trip of a lifetime? For those who remember those days, it cost a bunch of money to make photos. If you bought the best film and got it developed at the best places it would cost you $25 or more per roll, and I had three of them. It was costing me plenty for the trip as it was and taking photos was the least of my priorities. In today's social media conscious society, such would be unthinkable. But this was a different time and taking photos was seen as more of a luxury than a necessity. Did I mention I'm an Andreasen and I'm cheap?
The Eiffel Tower in Paris, France
Photo 18 of 75
In the end I took 25 photos in Paris, meaning I took only one full roll with me to Paris and allowed myself only that one. While I did get photos of the Eiffel Tower, Notre Dame, Arch of Triumph, and our evening dinner eating outside at a café on the Avenue des Champs-Elysees just a couple blocks from the Arc de Triomphe all lit up in the center of the city, I only got one of each. If your eyes were closed, too bad so sad. Because of the dearth of photos with which to remember that trip, it remains mostly just fond memories of a great time in another part of the world. Don't discount memories! Sometimes they are even better than the actual happenings, like Kathy's retelling of the Paris pickpocket story versus the actual event. But this is also why I told Myric to take as many photos as she could when she and Jon took a trip to Paris many years later. I think she took nearly 2,000 photos including many of the places I didn't get to see, like the Louvre. Because of her photos I was able to take another trip down memory lane back to one of the best places we ever visited.
Not long afterwards you began hearing about digital cameras being developed for consumer sales. Once again I couldn't imagine anyone actually buying one of these things. But once again I was wrong. You might say I am not an early adopter. In 2003 sales of digital cameras surpassed analog cameras and never looked back. My first digital camera was a pocket sized Canon Powershot, one that I bought for a week trip to the Big Apple and Niagara Falls with our Australian friends Craig and Missy in 2005. Being that he was truly a photographer and had awesome equipment I tried to learn from him. And I got some awesome photos on that trip.
When the iPhone came out in 2007 it was an instant success, more so for its camera and apps than for its phone capabilities. Apple really should have called it the iCamera or the iTexter. In the years since then cell phone manufacturers have seemingly spent more time improving the cameras contained in the phone than they have in improving the sound quality or reception of the phone itself. The cell phone camera has become such a deeply ingrained part of our lives that we now take thousands of photos of everything under the sun. There are now so many folks with their phone cameras at weddings that the professional photographers are constantly getting their photos ruined with the interlopers. Probably every dish ever offered for breakfast, lunch, or dinner has been photographed and placed online for all to see. And of course, there are the social media sites that allow us to share our lives with our families or perhaps everyone on the planet.
Canon 60D DSLR
Over the course of fifty-some years, I went from a used 35mm manual camera, to an auto exposure 35mm camera, to a fully automatic 35mm camera, to numerous iterations of digital cameras which culminated in the Canon 60D, and then on to numerous cell phones with cameras of varying quality. It took 40 years but my college goal of getting a professional level Canon camera was finally realized. To say it takes amazing photos would be an understatement. It far surpasses anything I ever had previous to it. That's why I stopped upgrading. I finally found the camera that will serve me well for years to come. Sadly, most of the photos that I take today are with whatever cell phone I have with me at the moment. The DSLR is a large and heavy piece of equipment and not inconspicuous, so it's much simpler to put the cell phone in your pocket for when you need it.
In that time period of taking photos, I have witnessed the camera that had served as a pricey and complicated tool for professionals transition into a handy and simple tool for everyone. While I still have my memories of good times gone by, I do appreciate the chance to scroll through the camera roll on my cell phone for thousands of photos of events I can appreciate anytime. At the moment I have 15,000 photos on my cell phone which include all the photos from all my previous cell phones. I have 25,000 photos from the five digital cameras I have used over the past fifteen years. And there are 75,000 photos in the Pictures folder of my desktop computer. I suppose there is some overlap in all of that but it would be safe to say I have over 100,000 digital photos that I've taken in those fifteen years. I've never counted all the photos in the photo albums or checked the negatives in the plastic sleeves but I'd imagine it would only be several thousand photos over those first thirty-fives years of film cameras. You have to be determined to hunt down one particular photo among the dozens of albums in the numerous boxes. I have made it a point to scan as many printed photos as possible since those printed photos continue to deteriorate with age. At least then they will still be available for future generations of the family.
Kids today may take it for granted, but the camera really is a marvelous tool.
Arktander
(aka David Andreasen)
