In the (camera) beginning...

This is what my mother has for a camera. Its about 30 years old, and takes beautiful pictures. It was the beginnings of my photographic love. She's collected a number of gadgets for it over the years - a wide angle, a beautiful 55mm-420mm telephoto lens, a mounted flash, a decent tripod.

I did a lot of playing around with it in my early 20's, even bought a few lens filters for it and a fancy plunger thingy that connects to the shutter release so that you can keep the shutter open indefinitely. Its a beautiful thing - there's nothing more amazing than taking a 1/2 hour exposure of a starry night sky!

This camera is in awesome shape, and has only been repaired once in 30 years. (I think it was around the time it followed the user into a giant mud puddle.) Both my mom & I have taken some really nice photos with it (a number of 1st prizes at the Chatsworth Fall Fair!), it's traveled all over the country on numerous vacations and been to tons of weddings.

But... its film. And film is just enough a pain the the butt that this great little camera has hardly seen the light of day in probably 3 years. So sad.