A Christmas Gift I’ll Never Forget
Above: It’s my original film SLR kit, including three filters and a cable release (yes kids, that steel cable is what we used to capture photos of dinosaurs, and those two small circles with gray caps were what film rolls came in).
Each year we throw a Christmas Party at our house for our family and friends, and this past Saturday was this year’s get-together and one of my dear friends from my childhood days, John Couch, was able to come this year with his lovely wife Diane and his kids Will and Katie (they live hours away so we don’t get to see each other very often). It was really a treat to see John and his family (I was his Best Man at his wedding, and now not only does he have kids, they’re pretty much all grown, and just wow — how time flies).
At some point during the party, John calls me over and says he brought me a special Christmas present. He holds up a camera bag and asks, “Does this look familiar?” I looked at it, and it kinda did look familiar I guess, but I wasn’t sure. Then he says, “Your gift is what’s inside. It’s your original camera.” He opens the bag and sure enough — there is was — my first SLR film camera, a Minolta SR-T 101 body with my old Soligar 50mm lens and my 200mm Vivitar Telephoto lens. I was just astounded (and I had a smile as big as the moon)!
Above: Here’s a close-up of my mighty Minolta SR-T 101 (later supplanted by a Pentax SLR). Kind of ironic that these photos of SLRs were taken with my iPhone, rather than a DSLR.
John said I had given it to him many years ago, back when we were roommates just out of high school, and he thought I might like to have it back to display on my desk at work or at home, and was he ever right (and man did that old gear bring back memories of my older brother Jeff and I traveling together and shooting and laughing and spending more money than we could afford on film and processing).
Above: Clearly there must have been a problem at the factory, because the LCD monitor is missing. ;-)
Anyway, I can’t tell you how tickled I am to have that old camera back again (it still has film in it. Now, if I could just find a place that actually develops filmâ¦). Anyway, I thought I’d share a few photos of my new “old” rig here with you. It certainly was a wonderful surprise and surely a Christmas Gift I’ll never forget. Thanks John, and Merry Christmas!