87 - My First Camera

Today's picture is of my first good camera. A Canon AE-1 from around 1978. I purchased it from money I earned mowing lawns in the 8th grade. Millions of photographers started with one of these. They were good, inexpensive cameras that were easy to use but could be put into manual mode to learn the basics of photography. This one literally traveled the world with me, going to the Philippines, Brazil, arctic Canada, and too many places in the US to name. For the first several years I used it, I just put it in shutter-priority mode (it's only automatic exposure mode) and left it there, except when I used flash. But in college I took a photojournalism class that finally taught me how to bend it to my will and develop my own prints. I still have the camera and it still works, although the light seals need replacing. I dedicate this photo to my life-long friend Richard, who had a camera very similar to this (the follow-on model, called the AE-1 Program).