STILL Camera

Film, in any form, has always been interesting to me. Anything visual, moving or still, attracts me. It's my shiny object. My father is the one who got me interested when I was young. He had a 35 mm and an 8 mm movie camera. Even my mother had a 35 mm. It wasn't until I was around eleven that they gave me my mom's old Brownie. I wish I could find the first snapshots I took. It was a sunny day at Fort DeRussy in Waikiki with my folks and my best friends family. I remember being anxious to get the prints hoping I'd done a good job. I used that camera for several years until my folks bought me my own Instamatic in the '60s.

Also in the '60s my maternal grandmother in Pennsylvania gave me her first Brownie, which looks very much like the one in this snapshot. My grandmother had to sell newspaper subscriptions to get the camera. I think she was around thirteen at the time. Both of her cameras, and my mom's old Brownie, sit on my bookshelf.

Click on image to see it larger.

This snapshot was purchased from a seller in Pennsylvania which leads me to believe the shot may have been taken there. It certainly looks like the rural Pennsylvania I remember from my childhood. The Appalachian Mountains could be seen from my grandparents back windows. Small mountains that in California would simply be called hills.

I like this shot for the simplicity. A woman standing in the sun on a dirt road with her Brownie camera and umbrella. Off in the distance people walking along the same dirt road. I imagine she eventually walked the same area where they can be seen. Perhaps a Sunday walk after church? A slow relaxed walk through the neighborhood, when neighborhoods were farmhouses spread far apart.

It's a still picture; a moving picture. It's my submission for Sepia Saturday.

The final Serious Family with the weird rugs will appear tomorrow.
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Tattered and Lost volumes 1 to 7 available at Amazon.