I'm pretty sure my second, third and fourth cameras were by the same maker. For a brief while in my youth I dabbled with various Poloroid cameras, the instant print maker that spit out a photo that developed before your eyes.
Flash cubes, instamatics, the thin 110 cameras -- I had them all. I was the one in the family always shooting photos. So many in fact, that if you look through the many hundreds of family photos in albums and online, I am not in many of them, save for those few shot when I was a baby, toddler and teen. Even in my teen days, most family photos from my formative days do not include me.
My mother grew up with the late comedian Paul Lynde. He was to our house many times in my youth when he would come through town performing. One summer, we hosted a lawn party in his honor, mostly staged as a high school reunion for people who had not seen him in decades. There are plenty of pictures of the funnyman with many guests -- some of them my friends from the neighborhood whom I had been permitted to invite. There are no photos of me and Mr. Lynde. I was busy snapping photos of he posing with everyone else.
My brush with fame, and no proof but a memory. Such is life.
Though my days as a working journalist many years ago had me shooting professionally for some years, I never owned higher end or larger format cameras. My only deviation from the brand was the Minolta SLR that I still have, and loved. Always preferred black and white photography over color. Loaded my own film for years, and lived in a darkroom. Nothing like it.
Today, a bankruptcy judge released what is left of Eastman Kodak Corp. from court oversight.
The company, long the American, if not world, standard for photographic equipment for pros and the masses, alike, now is a mere shadow of its former self. Kodak no longer manufactures cameras, nor film, though the latter is not surprising since we live in a digital world. It no longer manufactures paper.
Eastman Kodak Co., which during WW2 even manufactured firearms and grenades as part of the American war effort, was one of the world's most widely known brands. Recognizable on every continent. As of this week, the company is essentially a commercial photography printing firm.
I got away from photography for several years. No real reason, just never thought about picking up a camera. Over time, numerous friends were dabbling with digital and told me the wonders of this new technology. A longtime film bigot, I just couldn't see it. Then, my parents bought me an inexpensive point-and-shoot digital camera from Home Shopping Network. It sat in a box following Christmas for six or seven months before I finally broke open the packaging.
But once I did, it was like opening a floodgate. My passion for capturing unique images, seizing moments in time, returned with an absolute vengeance.
I have not stopped since.
Today, ironically, I use a Kodak digital camera -- one of the last manufactured with that company's name. My third digital camera, it was purchased in a hurry on deep discount at a local Target store. I was replacing my previous pal, which, sadly, accidentally took a dip in an inch of water on a rainy day. It still functioned, but there was just enough moisture penetration to permanently cloud the lens on the inside.
The next time I head out, digital camera in hand, I will remember George Eastman, founder of Eastman Kodak, and the many people who have used his original device, and its many descendant camera models through various technological evolutions.
So sad. But great companies come and go.
My dad's Poloroid Land Camera was used to make many photos in the late 1950s and through the 1960s. Important photos, like those of this author as a baby, and in a 1960s wading pool. Seriously, however, Kodak cameras have been used over parts of three centuries, tracing their history back to the 1800s.
Its probably fitting that Kodak be one of those great companies remembered for its strength of yesteryear. Today, most people take photos with their smartphones.
Alexander Graham Bell and George Eastman, if still around, would both probably shake their heads at the merger of their two monumental inventions.
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