Paying attention

I bought my first real camera back in the late 1970s when I finally had a job that allowed for little discretionary income. It was one of the first compact SLRs — a Contax 139 Quartz with a Planar 50mm/1.7. A simple darkroom setup came within a year or so, and I spent hours shooting images and meticulously noting exposure settings, then doing the same when developing negatives and printing enlargements.

The darkroom was a converted pantry in the basement, and though there were white spiders in the joists, the room was otherwise perfect, with no windows and a sink right outside the door. It was impossible to tell what time it was in the outside world — no clocks or sunlight, no street noise. Nights would pass quickly while I would carefully weigh the differences between Ilford and Kodak papers, learn how to push film, and work on the fine muscle control needed for burning and dodging. Even after printing hundreds of images, watching one emerge in the tray was still nothing short of magic.

But eventually I returned to college, and immersed myself in the abstractions of the printed word rather than the visual image.

In the past few years, though, I’ve started taking pictures again. There’s a little more money left over after bills than there was twenty-five years ago, so I’ve finally been able to return to an SLR. This time it’s digital — the Canon EOS Rebel XT. After outgrowing a few less flexible digitals (an early Mavica, a Cybershot), I figured it was time to spend money once rather than upgrading every two years or so.

I’m not yet worthy of this camera, but once in a while it looks like it could happen. A few pictures are here. The images show some degradation because they’ve been considerably reduced, but they give an idea of what the camera can do.