Cameras I’ve Loved!

I’ve been taking pictures since I was a child, starting out with cameras that looked this…

I’m serious! My first cameras had been manufactured long before I was born.

Vintage Cameras Found in a Closet!

I found several in a closet in our family’s home in Manhattan. I’m guessing that they may have belonged to my father’s father. When I was a kid, film for cameras like this – folding bed cameras – was still available, so I bought some, and, knowing next to nothing, starting using them. I’d take my exposed film to a drugstore; they’d send it to a Kodak lab for processing. This is how amateur photographers had film developed, back in the day.

But years before that came this…

Early Adventures in Picture-Taking

The frame on the left is me at five. On the right, the first picture I ever took, of my dad, who’d just taken the picture of me. Same roll of film. Adjacent exposures.

My early photos: pretty bad. But I stayed with it, and slowly my work improved. After a while, some images weren’t blurry.

A Turning Point

MANY years later, after a bunch of years as a bass player with various rock bands, and as a writer/producer/photographer of classroom projects for Encyclopaedia Britannica, I decided to pursue a photographic career.

Becoming a Professional/The Film Era

My first professional camera was the sturdy, reliable Nikon F. Strictly mechanical: no batteries. At one point I had six of them – two with motor drives, which did have batteries.

Later on, my tools of choice became the medium-format, motorized Hasselblad CM and ELX – exquisite machines that yielded 2 ¼” square images.

In the film era, Polaroids – instant film cameras – were used by professionals all the time to test lighting and exposure. This was the only way to preview versions of the final result. Pictured: one of the first generation of cameras manufactured by Polaroid – beautiful devices, for which film no longer exists.

Over the years, like most other pros, I’d use makes and models of cameras as dictated by the demands of my jobs. Art directors and photo editors might weigh in as to the format they wanted me to use for an assignment – 35mm, medium or large format (4×5 and 8×10 view cameras), but more often than not I’d recommend a format, and either the art director or editor would agree, or they wouldn’t. I didn’t own large format cameras. I’d rent them.

In the film era, at the professional level, color transparencies were the default choice (shooting for publication almost always required positive originals, or “chromes”), which would be developed in stages. The labs would do trial runs (“snip tests” on the West Coast, “clip tests” on the East Coast) to establish the proper processing time. Three or more test runs were needed for each job, to ensure optimal results. Hollywood-based A&I Color – the lab of choice of L.A. professionals for many years – was open from 6:00am until midnight to allow photographers multiple visits to review the tests, allowing us to meet our deadlines.

A&I Color no longer exists. Most labs no longer exist. Most photographic equipment rental houses no longer exist. There’s no more Hollywood photo district – no more photo studios all over town. But I still have one, in downtown L.A.

The Digital Era

When the digital age arrived, I (and virtually everyone else) switched to 35mm SLRs – hefty, high-end cameras yielding razor-sharp detail and a ton of control options. No more Polaroids; they weren’t needed. Pros wouldn’t have to look at simulations of a setup in another medium (coated paper) to gauge lighting and exposure. Now we could see the actual digital capture — instantly, rather than having to wait a full minute for a Polaroid to develop. This was a time-saver and a huge technological leap. Yet Polaroids were prints; over time photographers could amass decades of memories by hanging onto them, as I did. I have countless boxes of Polaroids from shoots long forgotten. Looking at them always offers up surprises.

This was my first digital SLR (“single lens reflex”– don’t ask). It’s been replaced many times over by newer models. And now there are mirrorless cameras (no more “reflex” — again, don’t ask). They’re smaller, lighter, and quieter, with no loss in image quality. But they require a whole other set of lenses. An expensive proposition.

In the 21st century commercial photographers need to have high-end digital cameras.

There are many to choose from. Most offer more options than you’ll ever need or may even know about. They’re computers with lenses attached.

But here’s the thing: a high-end camera won’t make you a great photographer. That part has to come from you.