My First Photograph

A fun conversation with an old friend last night about photography provoked a fine memory from the early days.

His question aimed at me was "do you recall your first memorable image?" Impossible, right?

I actually do have one. Well past the days of just taking pretty pictures, it was the day I had graduated into making photographs. Sounds silly, but those of you who know, know.

I was educated in fine art photography, using large format B/W (4x5 View Camera) to be more exact, and learning the ZONE SYSTEM of exposure/development was a huge part of my technical education. Once I perfected this, I was making technically sound images everywhere of everything. Problem was just that.....I was making technically perfect images. But, failed as a photographer. I was creating technical representations of nothing. And soon, visual boredom set in.

Then, one Spring day hiking the shores of Lake Superior, I walked upon this lovely scene of melting ice. The calmness, the reflections, the brilliant tonal values of the scene all elevated my visual senses to new heights. It moved me spiritually like nothing else ever had. I took my meter readings, made the exposure and rushed back to the lab to develop the film.

When the negative came out of the fixer, I tuned on the light to view the sheet film. It was beautiful negative and I knew it would make a fine print. It was terribly exciting.

Finally photographically, I had crossed over. I made the jump from being a technician to a photographer.

Yeah, my most memorable moment for sure. A fine day.

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