My favorite memories often have a camera in my hand. It all started with a Kodak Instamatic shooting on 126 film. Those fat cartridges were clunky, but I was just learning how much I liked photography. I’m sure I broke a few of these, and I had a few crappy 110 cameras along the way.
Dad had a Pentax K1000. This machine was a beast. I became enamored with night photography in the 80s. I have a fully illuminated White Rock Hills photo that is lit by the city lights. I was so impressed that I could capture that shot. Not longer after, I did a long exposure of Hoover Dam when vehicles could still travel over the dam. There is a truck that passes across the dam and up the hill, all in the frame. (I need to find the originals to share).
Moving out of the house meant leaving dad’s camera behind. It was a sad day. But, around the same time, Kodak introduced the Advantix cameras. I started with a simple version that had a fixed lens and didn’t do much. Then, I upgraded to a C750 which had an amazing zoom and decent optics (for a plastic camera). I shot several hundred rolls through this camera once I learned that I could have the negatives processed without prints at a much more reasonable price. Since I tended to take a lot of bad photos, it was cost effective.
Then, the gift that truly hooked me. The Minolta X-7A was an entry level 35mm camera with manual focus. It wasn’t a bells and whistle-ish as dad’s Pentax, but it was mine. I moved away from the APS format and back to 35mm. While work was occupying my life, I managed to break out and shoot landscapes on occasion.
Digital photography entered my life in 2003. I treated myself to a Nikon D70. It was an extravagant purchase, but I felt it made sense as photography was what really made me happy. The D70 has just nearly 50,000 shutter clicks. Not bad for 19 years of picture taking. Don’t forget, we all have cellular phone cameras that are ever present, too.
For Christmas 2021, I got a new to me Nikon D750. It’s got a huge learning curve from the D70. I’ve invested in some training from a National Geographic photographer, and I can tell I’ve already started taking better photos.
So, what’s the point of this blog? Well, I wanted to set the stage before I introduce you to my photo gallery. Through the Crystalline Lens is my beginning of a curated display of my photography. I may make updates to the gallery to change how the images are categorized and filed. But, for today, I recommend you start with the category word cloud where you can choose to see photos grouped by category. The bigger the word, the more photos in the category.
The Scenery Is Amazing
Christian Dahlstrom
