With a little assistance I'm now official! I was apparently an odd kid; my first focusable/adjustable camera was a Yashica A. That was followed by a 635, then a long spell in 35mm only. But if fading memory serves, in late 1989, I scored a kit with a Pentax 645, three film magazines, and three or four lenses in a Halliburton-like case. I put exactly ONE roll of film through it before the guilt of not using it enough led to its sale. I returned to a succession of 35s and then to digital. Fast WAY forward, and I stumbled onto a deal on a 645D that I couldn't pass up (yeah, the Pentax gene is pretty strong). Then late last year, a 645N joined the armory. I've not finished the first roll through that one, and at the moment, being recovering from shoulder surgery has me on the photographic bench.
But back to July 4, 1990 (again, if memory serves): An article in the old Shutterbug magazine discussed fireworks photography. I packed up the 645, loaded with Ektachrome, went to the roadside in Kings Mountain, NC and tried out the techniques described. I got the film developed and received the uncut, processed transparencies. This is where I mention that I owned neither a light table nor a loupe, so I never saw them any more than to hold them up to the light. Through two moves and more careless neglect than you can imagine, that strip of images languished, but survived. A week or so I took it to my local shop to be scanned. Here, after 30+ years, is one example, cropped but otherwise unmolested:
But back to July 4, 1990 (again, if memory serves): An article in the old Shutterbug magazine discussed fireworks photography. I packed up the 645, loaded with Ektachrome, went to the roadside in Kings Mountain, NC and tried out the techniques described. I got the film developed and received the uncut, processed transparencies. This is where I mention that I owned neither a light table nor a loupe, so I never saw them any more than to hold them up to the light. Through two moves and more careless neglect than you can imagine, that strip of images languished, but survived. A week or so I took it to my local shop to be scanned. Here, after 30+ years, is one example, cropped but otherwise unmolested:
