A WEAPON OF DELIGHT: MY NIKON D-40 CAMERA

It is said " a photograph is a mirror of an image"   The history of photography goes back almost 200 years. Since then photography has evolved exponentially. George Eastman of Kodak fame and his Brownie Camera fame allowed the working class to snap photos.

The carte-de-viste came earlier. In 1985 I auctioned off a collection of Civil War soldiers taken by a War, Mass man by the name of Aiken. The collection fetched $1,200. Early American estates had ton-types and ambro types. Glass negatives were also pat of photography's earlier years.

As our culture evolved Germany was reputed for having some of the best cameras in the world. Leica is one such example. Photography kept achieving higher degrees of photograph perfection. Later enlargements were the rule. I have such works of my parent's marriage in 1936!

If war means progress, photography kept getting better. Color photography seemed to be a quantum leap in the world. Photographs were transmitted around the world. Life was getting better with the documentation of events.

Enter one Edwin Land the father of the  of the Polaroid. Recall television hosts taking pictures and  peeling back the tab and voila: instant photos! Somehow the Polaroid presence was abbreviated by advancing cameras. The SLR (single lens reflex) gave even greater photos. I bought a Canon SLR from Tim Nason about 1972. My purchase allowed me to jump into the next level of photography. The camera lasted 25 years. People raved about my photography

!

Roll film was eventually replaced  by the digitizing of photos. Once again photography enticed more folks to learn how to "point and shoot." Smart phone have made photographers of the masses. Selfies further catapulted the average person in becoming a Mathew Brady.. the person who documented the CIVIL WAR in America. with his pictures. Once again my charge of liquidating estates was fun when I unearth early photos. Thr Late Ralph Whitman was high bidder on a Civil War photo mounted on a cardboard backing.

In Vietnam I zapped soldiers instead of snapping photos as an X-Ray technician. I had a dark room, developer and fixing solutions and a water rinse. The films were air dries then brought to a radiologist.

In the past two days I've shot over 250 images and had Walgreens develop all with wonderful results. Today I plan on returning to Fenway Park with camera in hand.

Heidi Potvin is a wonderful family photographer. The munchkins are poster-children for Mama.

With the above I say "SMILE, YOURE ON CANDID CAMERA!" LOL.

Robert L