"Polly...lens cap."

When I was a child, my mother would buy me a little disposable camera from Wal-Mart, and I would take pictures of any random thing I thought fascinating.  We would return to Wal-Mart and I would place the camera in a little paper bag, after my mom had written her name and the date and some other information on it.  I remember always being curious about the "magic" of cameras- how did they turn "wind wind click" into pictures?  That was a curiosity that would puzzle me until my late teens, when I thought find demystify this magic with a little research.  Turns out, not all magician's secrets are disappointing.

With my recent venture to start as a YouTuber, my eyes have looked upon many a digital camera in search of the right one (in the right price point) for my needs.  This search has, of course, given me some interesting food for thought.

I've been thinking on how technology- though certainly a useful thing- has progressed to the point that arts of days gone by are slowly being lost in the aether of time.  In particular, I was thinking of the art of photography.  Of course, this art is very much still alive, and flourishing; but so much of it has changed, and some aspects are virtually non-existent now.  When I mentioned to someone that I had been wanting a film camera, he literally replied, "does anyone even develop that stuff anymore?"  And that's the saddening part- not many places do.  Not many people do- or even know how to.

And that, my friends, brings me to this: I am overwhelmingly excited to show you my beautiful new acquisitions.  The first is a camera from the sixties- a Honeywell Pentax H1a.

This model was made from 1962 to 1968, and went for about $160 in its time.Whether it will work as a camera remains to be seen, but part of me hopes that it won't, so I can use it as an upcycling piece.

The second is wherein lies the bulk of my excitement: an slr camera from the nineties, with a couple different lenses.

In truth, my photography knowledge is minimal.  I can find a good angle any day, but I know squat about settings and shutter speed etc, mainly because I have never had a camera to play with to learn.  I am ecstatic to have this new piece of equipment to play with, and eager to learn to use it.

Sometimes it seems as though art is slipping through the cracks, disappearing with time, but it only takes a few sparks to keep a fire alive.  I am anxious to no longer be an ember, but a spark in the almost lost art of film photography.