9/52 – When I was 10 years old, my dad gave me my first camera. It was a “Kodak C-110” (anyone remember those?), and it went almost everywhere with me for years. I loved everything about taking pictures right from the start and saved all my babysitting money for film and processing. I outgrew that camera pretty quickly. While it would be years before I had my own SLR, I used my dad’s every chance I could.
Lately, my just-shy-of-ten-year-old has been begging me to teach her how to use my camera. My old Olympus is a better size (and weight!) for her hands, so this weekend I dusted it off, charged the battery and put it on auto mode for her. Soon enough, I’ll start talking to her about light and shutter speeds and aperture, the way my dad did with me (with my fully manual Pentak K1000. No “programmed” anything!). For now, she was thrilled to “point and shoot”.