Early Vision

When I was a kid growing up in the 70’s my dad caught the 35mm photo bug. Slideshows from his vacations with Mom weren't bloated with the typical torturous snapshots of a person posed in front of something famous.  He had a natural eye for composition, and from early on his slides impressed on me the artistic potential in the camera.  Creativity was within anyone's reach.  Among ordinary or familiar sights were special, dramatic views if you had a certain crop and focus.

Photography in the 70’s was an affordable hobby for adults, but kinda out of my league as a little kid.  Then, either to include Mom in the fun or just to get more spending leeway for himself, Dad bought her a Kodak Instamatic 110 camera.  She was pretty happy with the can't-miss gizmo, and took endless snapshots of the family.  One evening walking on the beach I asked her why she didn't shoot things like the sunset, and she handed me the camera.  It was just a point-and-shoot moment, but when Mom developed the roll of film my first pic got preserved in my memory-book.  I was twelve.