Taking a trip down memory lane is always a rich and complex experience. Often we find ourselves understanding the course of our life because of some incident. I covered that in a blog earlier about why I became a film-maker.
https://steemit.com/life/@markvicente/how-i-fell-in-love-with-movies-and-became-a-filmmaker
But even before my ‘drum experience', there was a moment that made me fall in love with photography. My grandfather, Hannes van Zijl, owned an advertising agency in South Africa. Being an Ad Man, he always carried a camera around. One day, when I was all of 4 years old, I asked him if he could show me how to use it. It was an old range-finder camera with an amazing brown leather case. It was well used and he’d taken some amazing photographs with it. I handed him my wind-up rubber-band glider to hold while I took the camera from him.
After learning the basics I asked him if I could take a photo of him. Smiling, he acquiesced. He probably thought I was going to end up shooting half his face or something!! I took aim... and click. After that I probably ran off to continue terrorizing people with my glider.
Weeks later, my grandfather excitedly brought me into his office and showed me a picture frame on his desk. It was the photograph I took! He was beaming with pride and I was amazed. He said I had done exceptionally well for my first try.
You can see him looking down at me holding my glider. And yes, he was a cool cat!
He kept that picture in his office till the day he died. It brings me such joy and warm memories to look at it. First because he was a man that was deeply influential in my life, secondly became it was my first ‘foray’ into photography. Taking that picture and seeing my work displayed would change my life. I become obsessed with shooting from then on. I didn’t realize till much later that you could actually make a career out of it!
I'm curious about other photographers out here. When did you take your first photo and do you still have it?!
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Wow! Great photograph you took at that young age,i love photography and i can remember when i got my first camera and i loved taking pictures of it.......i hope to see more photographs from you later.
What a great story. I can imagine your grandpa to be proud of you, it is a great shot. What a difference in experience nowadays. When kids take a picture they can immediately see if it is a good shot or not.
My first image, I am pretty sure it must have been a black and white using the camera of my father, but I have no idea what the subject was.
I do remember my kids asking for my camera, using it to take pictures of their toys and our pets. Those images are still stored on a harddrive, even the 'not so much in focus' ones :)
That’s awesome! Do you still have the negatives of your first stuff?
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I am going to look for them this weekend :)
Unfortunately I couldn't find the picture, nor the negatives. My time wasn't completely wasted though. Browsing these old pictures and their negatives brought back good memories. Even found some slides framed in real glass. I was surprised they survived time. Some seem to have lost some of their detail, but I could still figure out who was in the picture :)