It's amazing sometimes, when you get to this age, that you find something once again that you've been carrying around for what seems like an eternity. Today's Foo Photo is one of these.When I was young my parents gave me a 1950s-era Kodak camera. This thing was awesome with black and white film; it served me well in Junior High when I was on the annual staff, fed with a steady stream of Tri-X Pan film that the staff advisor handed me with the command to "take shots everywhere of everything." I can point to that old camera and those instructions as the headwaters of my interest in photography.
In 1983 or 1984, I was still using this camera and had developed (no pun intended) a love for black and white photography. Down in Richmond Beach one day, I took this shot from below road level along Richmond Beach Rd SW, pointing south towards NW 195th. The car: 1955 Chevy 210 four-door with license plates that show Yakima County WA as its previous home. Why I took this shot, I'll never know. But to this day the shot still haunts me for the fact that it was taken in the early 1980s but had the dark feeling of a 1950s shot because of the car. Veteran photographers might look at this and say, "What The?" I expect that. But as I've said in the past on photography forums, "You need guys like me - people who take average or below average shots - to make you guys look better." I get some good shots from time to time, but I don't really consider myself to be gifted with a camera. I leave that title to my friend Tracy.
So is this a good shot, or just a sentimental one? I'm steering towards sentimentality, because of what it reminds me of. I was 18 or 19, little responsibility, and a desire to document the world around me. All the other shots I took that winter day are gone. And so is the camera.
But at least we have this `55 Chevy to remember what was.
No comments:
Post a Comment