It was easy for me to follow in my Uncle Howard’s footsteps as a photographer for several reasons:
- Choosing equipment was easy. Uncle Howard used a manual Kodak 35mm rangefinder camera. There wasn’t much more choice when I got my 35mm rangefinder in 1970. I got a Japanese Yashica with a bit of automation but it wasn’t much different from my uncle’s 1954 Kodak.
- There was only one media back then that was worth it for making images – slow but steady Kodak Kodachrome color slide film. Uncle Howard used it for 30 years. I used it for 15 and then switched to Kodak print film and eventually Fuji print film.
- I could have had no better example of photographic excellence. Uncle Howard was a master of light and shadow. He had to use flashbulbs for indoor photography, but he managed pretty well given the limitations of camera and film.
In the 50+ years since this picture was taken, the technology of photography has changed utterly. Given the fact that smartphones have largely replaced digital cameras, can there even be a next-generation photographer in the sense that I succeeded my Uncle Howard? Does it even matter anymore?
One hopeful sign that old-school photography may still be alive is an article like this. The future may lie with Generation Z photographers making use of older digital equipment.
There may be such a Gen Z image maker in my granddaughter Veronica.
When I got my Lumix travel zoom a few years ago, I gave Sarah’s family a very fine Canon S90 point-and-shoot. Veronica got interested in using it about five years ago when we went on a transatlantic cruise to Rome. She immediately showed an excellent eye for framing and viewing images. I have done my best to encourage her.
Veronica has her own teenage Instagram account, and a smartphone – so her workflow is different than mine. She recently used my SD card reader to transfer photos from the Canon to her phone so she could post them.
Her secondary school may offer a technical course in photography when she is in Grade 10. I hope she will be interested enough to take it.
Veronica will be her own woman when it comes to using a camera, though. She is really interested in video production – something her smartphone can do much better than the dinosaur digicams from 10 years ago.
However, she can learn a lot from the practice of still photography if she takes the time. And I’ll do my best to teach her what Uncle Howard showed me.
