365 True Things: 22/Photography

My first camera was a Canon rangefinder: I'm guessing it was a Canonet QL17, but I no longer have it so can't check. My father bought it for me in 1965 when we lived in Japan. I don't recall using it while we were there, though I must have.

I do remember shooting an entire roll of film at Schönbrunn Palace in Vienna a few years later, as I made my way down what seemed like an infinitely long Allee toward a fountain that, in my photos, never got very impressive (i.e., I never actually made it to the fountain in those 24 or 36 shots). Here's a picture (not by me) taken from the fountain looking back along the Allee; apparently my idea of "infinity" was bigger back then than it is now. Or maybe it just seemed infinite because the entire experience took place through a viewfinder.

I became "serious" about photography in 1990 or so, when I started taking classes at the local college in black-and-white photography, including darkroom work. I love silver gelatin, and I love sloshing around in chemicals. But I doubt I'll ever find my way into a darkroom again. Now all my printing is done on a Canon iPF5100 17-inch inkjet printer. Almost exclusively in color.

(The camera photo is from a post by Allan Burgess on a website called Rangefinder Film Cameras of the 1960s and 1970s; Schönbrunn Palace is courtesy of Camilamarie from the blog Travel Initiative.)