Posts Tagged ‘Film’

Tatay and his Camera

My dad and his Nikon at the Grand Canyon

From yesterday’s post, you can see I still like to get in front of the camera sometimes. My father was the family photographer. His Nikon was always around his neck, and he brought it on every special outing. Looking back, I am now much more interested in what he was shooting, what lens, what camera body, perhaps what film he was using. I’m thankful that my dad did not shy away from having his photo taken. It would have been a shame to have so many family photos, and not have many of him on film.

Family Vacation Photos

My dad and his Nikon at the Grand Canyon
My dad and his Nikon at the Grand Canyon

If you are the family photographer, be sure to get out in front of the lens! Spending all your time behind will no doubt make your photos better, but after so many years, family will want to see you in there too. Since my dad only had the big SLR camera, all of these were taken with other point and shoot cameras, or maybe disposables. With these subjects, it really does not matter how they were captured, I’m just enjoying looking back and the times that we took time as a family to visit places away from home, and spend time together.

Parents and the camera on vacation
Parents and the camera on vacation

Just writing this post, I thought of a new assignment for myself. With the evolution of Nikon cameras, they have decided to keep the lens mount the same. I should do a shoot with my modern cameras using only my dad’s old manual focus lenses. They still mount on my cameras, and maybe they will make some different images. Will I be able to tell the difference? I’ll give it a try – see if you notice the difference! Thanks to Tatay for getting good glass that I can still use. I’ll be sure that they don’t rust away on the shelf.

Tatay and his Nikon at home
Tatay and his Nikon at home

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Illuminada

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This post is dedicated to my aunt. She was my father’s sister that visited us often. Her brothers treated her with the respect that all good brothers show to their oldest sister. Compared to her, my dad was outwardly more energetic, and seemed to bring more attention to himself with loud laughter and funny stories. Tia Nada, as most called her, was more reserved in her actions, but she had many of the same personality traits underneath the surface. She too, had stories that could get the group going, and her humor fit right in with all of her siblings.

Family Photos

Nanay, Papa Titing, Tia Nada on deck2

From snippets of stories of the old days, it was Tia Nada that first met my mother. They both worked in the same hospital and became friends. Since the workplace was in Tia Nada’s town, it was natural for my mom to be invited to and meet the rest of the family. Who knows where I would be, or IF I would be if this circumstance was different!

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I remember her as a gentle, yet strong and independent person. My mother could depend on her to help with her business if her regular assistants were on vacation. She could help with keeping her books, she helped to cook during our family reunions, and she even helped us move our things to a new house.

Tia Nada lived for a long time in Toluca Lake, California. While at home, she kept up with the headlines and all of the news of the celebrities in Southern CA. She would recount all of details of the OJ Simpsons trial when we call her. (C’mon now, every family has at least one person that followed the whole story!) She called us to make sure we were watching the Opening Ceremonies of the 1984 Olympics in her city. And driving through her neighborhood, she could give you her own tour of famous people’s homes, no map needed!

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This always seemed to keep her younger in my mind. I admired her strength in challenging times. She relied on family, but we also relied on her. I hope much of her spirit survives in us after knowing her. 

Best Gifts

I am so thankful for another great Christmas spent with family. There was so much good food to eat, and many gifts to exchange! Some of the best gifts are still related to photography. A new camera, or a new camera bag to hold all my stuff! Actually, I am enjoying going through some old photos. I sent a few of our old family slides out to be scanned. It takes a long time to do the scanning right, and the equipment can be hard to master.

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Luckily, there are lots of places that you can outsource this. Luckily they were able to complete the job in time before Christmas. It was nice to share the digitized images with family while we had some time to relax and go through them. These old images definitely have more meaning as time passes. This makes me appreciate even more the job of being a photographer to help preserve even better images for people if I have the gear and the knowledge to do so.

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I have plenty of personal images to go through after the scanning. These were all taken on slide film, so we did not see them as often as those that were taken with negative film, and then printed. These always stayed as slides and would only come out when my parents setup the projector, loaded them into trays, and displayed them on a projector screen. Sometimes we would look at them on a small slide viewer, but it was still rarer than looking through the prints. It has been fun to look at them again especially during the holidays.

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