I’ve had a camera in my hand since I can remember….and back then (umm…20 something years ago) there was no such thing as a DSLR. I’ve had the all manual Canon FT QL, I’ve had various 110 cameras, the Le Clic disk camera, the kodak panoramic camera, the Canon ElanII SLR, all sorts. The little odd jobs and part time jobs I had as a kid (for example…mowing lawns) paid either for my horse’s feed/hay or the developing of film. I was obsessed with both horses and photography.
The other day I had to hook up my scanner for something and once I was finished, decided to scan some old photos I had handy. I then realized that some of these photos I was looking at were over 20 years old…wow… I took those…. when I was in high school 9and younger)….holy…crap. After realizing the age of the photos, I then FELT OLD. I still want to dig out a box I have stowed away in the closet jam packed with photos and negatives and go through what’s in there and possibly buy some actual photo albums and at least get everything sorted and safely behind some plastic sleeves.
Here’s a few I just scanned of various ages.
Cades Cove, Smokey Mountain National Park, circa 2002 - Canon ElanII 35mm SLR (I did take this into photoshop and changed it from color to black and white).
Baby Raccoon – not 100% sure on the age of this one, I think this was taken in 2001. Canon ElanII 35mm SLR
Grand Tetons, Jackson Hole, Wyoming – circa 1990…I was about 16 years old when I took this with the Canon FT QL 35mm SLR
This was Bosco, a German Shorthaired Pointer I grew up with…and one of the best dogs ever. I still don’t know the date on this one but it’s at least 22 years old, it was taken with the Canon FT QL manual 35mm SLR. And I love the fact that I had bokeh, before bokeh was cool 
As I continue to scan the (over 300) black and white negatives that came with the ebay Argus C3 camera I bought, I’m continually amazed at these pictures. Not only are they of some of the most historical places in the world, but they are from over 65 years ago! Here’s a couple you may (or may not recognize), click each photo to be taken to it’s photo page to find out what these locations are (obviously, the title of this post gives you a hint.)
My family and I are planning a big trip to Europe this summer. There’s eleven of us going and we’re all so excited! I wish my grandfather was alive to go with us, because we’ll be visiting one of the concentration camps he helped liberate. Recently I purchased a vintage camera on Ebay. The camera is the Argus C3 and it’s in amazing condition, it also came with undeveloped color slide film (that expired in 1954), and also some developed black and white negatives. The negatives were the surprise, they are filled with images the owner took during WWII! I know some history and information on the owner (he passed away at age 63 and his wife recently passed away last year..and I believe the person I bought this from on Ebay got this camera from the estate sale)…I’m in the process of scanning all of the negatives, and when I’m finished I’m going to try and see what family members I can contact to see if they’d like the scanned images.
One thing I plan to do is to run a test roll through the Argus camera to make sure it’s in working order, and then take this camera with me to Europe…so that it can take pictures there once again.
I wanted to share a couple with you tonight from the over 200 images I’ve already scanned…I believe these were both taken in Slovenia (which is near north Italy).
Stanley is the newest edition to my 35mm film camera collection, isn’t he cute? And he’s in such great shape for his age! Stanley was bought from Ebay, and what a steal he was! Not only did he come with some vintage kodak metal film canisters (and film that expired in 1953 and 1958), but there were developed 35mm negatives in there from the 1940’s and 1950’s… more on that soon!
For now, meet my new friend…
