A Lifetime of Photography

I have been an avid photographer for over 50 years. Whenever I put that in to print, I always wonder if people have this vision of some old geezer sitting in the park with a Kodak Brownie and his nurse wiping the drool from his mouth. I’d like to say that is very far from the truth, but getting closer.

My very first camera was an Argus Seventy-Five (manufactured 1949-1958) shown here. Basically, it was a box camera with a twin lens reflex viewfinder that loaded the now extinct 620 type film. For you 620 fanatics, yes the spool is still in the camera. They know what I’m talking about. My paternal grandmother gave me this camera and I still have it today. Grandma really didn’t want to part with that camera, but how could she refuse her first-born six year old grandson.

So began my photographic journey. I still have some of the photos that I made when I was six years old. I used to spend a lot of time with my grandparents at their Miami home and fishing with my grandfather, father and cousin in the Florida Keys.

The next donated (commandeered) camera was my Uncle Angelo’s Contax or Pentax, I can never remember which one it was. I bought a few lenses for it and I do know that they were screw mounts. It was a good camera and I was able to learn a lot about 35mm photography through that camera, shooting in mostly B&W. I only had it a few years and when I upgraded to Nikon, my Uncle asked me to return it. This is probably the only camera I used that is not in my collection.

Armed with a 35mm camera, I purchased the Time-Life Library of Photography, and read each volume about a thousand times. When my thirst for knowledge increased I fed my habit by purchasing the Encyclopedia of Photography, all volumes, and anything else I could get my hands on to read. These were the days before personal computer, or the Internet. People actually had to read books to gain knowledge! Imagine that; how we suffered.

My next camera was a Kodak Retina II, 35mm, range finder type camera with a leather bellows. It was my Dad’s camera and I believe he purchased it just after WWII. He reluctantly handed it down to me. This little 35mm camera was one of the best cameras I ever owned until I discovered the Nikon FTn. By the way, the photos you see here of these cameras are the real deal, they are from my collection.

My all time favorite camera was the Nikon F with FTn head. It was probably the best deal ever for that particular camera. To get a better deal you would have to steal it. At the time (around 1970) my Dad and I used to do a lot of saltwater fishing. Many times we fished with a man named Jack Lieberman. He would come on our boat, we would go out on his boat. Jack knew I was a big camera buff, but never mentioned that he was the owner of MiniFilm. This shop was located in the lobby of the Statler-Hilton Hotel, right up the street from Willoughby-Peerless Camera and across from Madison Square Garden.

I happened to mention one day, while we were hauling in Striped Bass and Bluefish, that I was going to buy a Nikon F at Willoughby’s. Well, Jack nearly had a heart attack right on the spot. When he regained his composure, he instructed me to go to MiniFilm on Monday morning and he would meet me there. I still didn’t know he was the owner and my Dad wasn’t letting on either.

Well, on Monday at about 8:30am I arrived at MiniFilm and waited outside the store. A few minutes later I ran into an old friend of mine, Steve Simon. He and I knew each other since we were little kids playing softball in his backyard on Voorhees Ave in Brooklyn. We talked for a few minutes and then he had to go to work. Guess where – MiniFilm.

Jack opens the door to let Steve in and invites me in as well. Stevie is stunned and so am I to see Jack inside the store. Then Jack reveals to me that he is the owner. You could have knocked me over with a feather.

We then proceeded to shop Nikon cameras. Jack pulled some equipment off the shelves and placed

everything before me; Nikon F, FTn head, telephoto lens, wide angle lens, 50mm lens, Vivitar flash, camera bag, batteries for the flash, about 100 rolls of film – B&W, Kodachrome, Ektachrome, filters and a whole bunch of other stuff. Jack then proudly tells me that all that I see in front of me is mine for $350 bucks. I think I peed my pants from the excitement. Jack loaded everything into bags, loaded me into his car and drove me home to Brooklyn. Carrying all this stuff on the subway would have been like carrying a sign that said – Please Mug Me.

I never, ever mentioned the W(illoughbys) word again, and I was also the happiest kid in Brooklyn. Jack and my Dad and I continued to go on quite a few fishing trips after that day. The trip to MiniFilm was never mentioned again. Jack was a humble guy and I didn’t want to embarrass him. I thanked him and so did my Dad and that was the end of it, forever grateful to be introduced to the world of Nikon cameras.

My Dad and Jack have long since passed from this world, and are now fishing in another universe. I lost track of Steve Simon many years ago and I hope that he is doing well today.

Next Installment –
Why I waited over twenty years to buy another camera.

This is a continuing story – I just don’t have the time right now to complete it, have to go and walk the dog. He just has that, “Hey, stop writing and take me for a walk, I gotta pee… ” look on his face.

Okay c’mon boy let’s go…. I gotta pee too.

UPDATE: 2009-09-15 — A few months ago Kaiser became ill and had to be euthanized. In dog years he was about 85 years old. His appetite was seriously waning and the vet discovered a large mass in his abdomen. He was my son Rob’s dog, Rob’s a career firefighter and when Rob was working, I’d walk him and pal around with him. I know my son was devastated at his loss and I very much miss walking with him all over Ocean Beach in San Diego.