My brand new camera in hand, I headed out to photograph the world and the people who live in it. Me, working for National Geographic? Nope. Me, at five-years old with my brandy new Kodak Hawkeye that I'm pretty sure my mom ordered off the back of Nestle's Quik...we LOVED our premiums and always bought the cool stuff offered on boxes of cereal and such. I'm pretty sure she bought one each for my sister Katie and I. We had just moved on to a new cul-de-sac in Santa Cruz - Harkleroad Avenue - named after the Harkleroad family who had surely owned the property that was mowed down and developed. Needless to say, living on HarkleROAD Avenue caused much confusion over the years... It was 1962 and ours was the first on the block besides the Harkleroad house. The Tribble's house ended up on that lot you can see behind Mr. Telephone Man, right on the corner of Harkleroad and Rodriguez.As you can see by the picture, it was a quality piece. I think a spool of film held twelve pictures. You turned a knob on the bottom to advance the film, watching carefully the little window to see the arrows until you reached the next number. Turn it too fast and you might miss the frame then your next photo would be lacking half of a memory.
As I ventured up the street, I came upon a telephone lineman. Future paparazzi as I was, I apparently charmed him into this coy pose. The albums are full of cheesy pictures I took over the years, plenty of them black and white with rippled edges, notes in back (or sometimes in the border) identifying the people or place. See how my feeble attempt at cursive identified my subject? I kept this picture in spite of having no idea who he is but I know it was my first photo. The one that got me hooked. I wonder if my mom had any idea of what she was doing when she ordered that camera. Do you remember your first camera? Did you ever order cool stuff from the back of boxes?
5 comments:
That's awesome! I remember the blue chip stamps and going with my mom to pick out cool things. I can't even remember my first camera but I think it resembled a cheap Polaroid. Love the pic!
I believe my first camera was a Kodak Brownie, or some such. Don't remember ever having any pictures developed, though.
That's a pretty cool photograph. Thanks for sharing!
It's a great pic and your parents were wonderful to develop your film and encourage your art. :)
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