The History of Photography: 1972

Get Close to the Action: We discovered the wonders of close-ups. When combined with our fondness for modelling, we were able to recreate scenes such as this, showing the Wermacht's little-known armored advance into the outskirts of Windsor Heights. The models are mostly by Steve O'Brien. Halina, 45 f/2.8 lens, Tri-X Pan.

On vacation in Colorado, Dad gives me Halina 35mm camera. I use 2 rolls of Tri-X Pan. Developed at K Mart into 3X5 prints with about 1/4" borders. I'm enchanted. Once home, Dad upgrades me to his scale-focusing Paxette with 45mm f/2.8 lens, leather everready case, extinction meter, Compur leaf shutter from 1 to 1/300th of a second. Also have Sekonic hand held selenium meter. Friend Steve O'Brien also goes to Colorado and separately becomes enchanted with photography using an old Kodak Retina. Drive by balloon races one day in Indianola, Iowa, and excitedly take pictures out car window. Resulting images lose impact since they are black and white and the balloons show up as microscopic specks on the prints. Get one of the new Kodak Pocket Instamatic 20 cameras for birthday. Dad has a bulb flash unit and I learn all about 5Bs, M3Bs, AG1Bs and Guide Numbers. Steve and I spend summer mowing lawns to feed film habit, poring over Modern Photographys, endlessly comparing our premier equipment and trying to figure out what the f in f/stop stands for.

More Photo Hints from 1972

Use the Telephoto to Get Close: This photography thing is cool and all but this Halina has a fixed 45mm lens. Wonder what would happen if I used these 7X35 Focal binoculars in front of the lens? That would be like a 350mm lens! Cool! Let's try it! Well, aiming difficulties, exposure problems and insufficient exit pupil to fill the frame pretty much put an end to this experiment, but some of the results live on. This is Hal Wittenstein mowing a lawn down the street, one of the few frames that actually got the subject and not, say, an electric transformer or random bit of curb. Halina, 45mm lens + 7 X 35mm Focal binoculars, Tri-X Pan