Why Photography?

Some of my earliest memories are about 'playing' photography. I had a Fisher Price camera that I loved. When you looked in the viewfinder and clicked the button it showed pictures of different zoo animals.

I can remember doing "photo shoots" with my dolls and stuffed animals. My little friend Megan and I would pose them on our bed or different places around the house and "snap" a picture with the camera. Then we would cut up paper to the size of a photograph and color a picture of our little setup. Then we would get a plastic box and fill it with water (aka "chemicals") and put it in the closet (aka "darkroom"). We would dunk our pictures into the "chemicals" to develop them. Then we would hang up the pictures with clothes pins on the rack in the closet to dry. When the paper dried it was a little stiff and we thought it was the coolest thing ever! I have NO idea how we knew how to do this. We couldn't have been older than 5 at the time (and apparently we had long attention spans). Maybe we saw it on Sesame Street?? (Remember how they used to do little segments on how things were made?? Like the one where they showed how they make crayons?? That was one of my favorites!). Anyway, photography stuck with me.

When I was in 7th grade we took a trip to Ohio and went canoeing. We stopped at this little secluded alcove off the river and I took a picture. It wasn't that great of a picture, but it was such a neat spot that I remember thinking was so beautiful. The sun was shining through the trees and all you could hear was the running water and chirping birds. I loved that picture so much because, after I got it developed (back in the day when you had to get pictures developed), I could look at that picture and remember that spot. I think that was when I first realized how photos can stir your memory and take you back to a place and time. I still have the picture and still really like it for that reason.

In high school I took a photography class. I looked forward to that class every day that semester! We got to do so much neat stuff. We learned all about how cameras work. We looked at tons of photos by famous photographers to help us learn what makes a good and interesting picture. We got to go out around the school and take pictures using what we learned. We got to develop film and make prints in the darkroom. Though I am glad photography has become more accessible by going digital, I am sad that film is almost a thing of the past. Watching your picture appear through the chemicals in the darkroom is near close to magical. I used my dad's 1960's TLS Sears and Roebuck camera to take all my pictures that semester. You had to hit the side of it pretty hard several times to get the light meter to work before you could take a picture. I'm sure I looked funny going around banging on the side of the camera in front of my face!

The most important thing I learned that semester was about light. The word photography literally means "light writing" (Isn't that the coolest thing?). I remember our first assignment was to take pictures of light. I remember thinking that was the hardest assignment ever...how in the world are you supposed to take pictures of light? I remember how that assignment stretched me, and how I looked for the light, and how I found it. And now I always notice the light.

If you want to know the secret to photography here it is. Are you ready? It is not about fancy cameras or lenses, although those things can help. Here it is, in the words of George Eastman, who was the founder of the Eastman Kodak company and the inventor of roll film which first made photography accessible to the mainstream:

“Light makes photography. Embrace light. Admire it. Love it. But above all, know light. Know it for all you are worth, and you will know the key to photography.” -George Eastman