Monday, June 21, 2021

It is all his fault!

My Father that is. He was creative and had a playful mind.

One of the biggest regrets is that I don't have many photos of him. And I realize why. When he first picked up a camera, there was NO such thing as selfies. 


I don't know when this photo was taken or who took it. But there he is with a Brownie reading a light meter. I remember him with a Pentax film camera. He had one lens and it was a long lens. He used to let me hold it and pretend to take photos. Other times he'd have me make a box with my fingers and hands to make a 'frame'.
It was a game we played. I could frame a photo with my hands and we would go over what his light meter said.


I can't imagine the challenges that he had when taking photos of us kids doing activities. The winter photo could be around 1965 when we had a huge snowstorm. We took turns leaping off the piled up snow into the yard. 
The one leaping is me.

I seemed to leap a lot...



I am a bit less carefree about leaping now. 

I often wonder how things would be different had my father been able to learn and own a digital camera. Considering that he had to manually focus and meter most of his photos, he did quite well. 

We all loved and hated it when he'd walk around with that long lens of his. I think I was in trouble for something here and had a time out to think. Dad must have gone into another room and captured this through the doorway. 



The shot below is from one of the times we rented a house in Puako on the Big Island.
I fell deeply in love with this dog and it followed me everywhere for the month we stayed. I recall crying like a baby when we had to leave. 
I think we called him Hero.


Hero even showed up in a portrait my father did of all the women that had gone on the trip. This included mom, sis, me & Hero, my mom's friend, and my cousin.


See? It is my dad's fault that I love photography so much. 

Probably my dad's fault that I'd like to go back to the Big Island again. So many happy and wonderful memories were created over the years there.




So this past Father's Day had me thinking about Dad and all the cool stuff he enabled us to do with his crazy ideas.
The first time we went to Hawaii, Dad had asked to rent a friend's house he'd seen a photo of.
The friend said sure.
Dad wanted to rent the house for a family vacation. Dad thought it was in Florida.

It wasn't. 
But somehow my parents actually made it happen. And we went each summer from 1965-1974.

It was all Dad's Fault.


7 comments:

  1. My Mom was the Photographer in the family. She took Poleroids ( remember those?) They were TERRIBLE but self developing, so she could see them ASAP. I never gathered her photos because they were so bad, therefore, I have very few( if any) pics of my family. I got my Mom a 110 camera. ( remember those?) and she LOVED it. It took far better pics... even though it was CHEAP! By the time I got it for her, the film developing process was far easier. ( Target and Kmart would could develop it while you shopped. Looks like a fun time in those family photos.

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    1. My dad started me out with a Kodak 110. I was in 7th heaven and had so much fun with that camera. I think I had it through high school. I didn't get a regular camera until one day I picked up my husband's off brand film camera and took portraits of the kids. I purchased a pocket film camera for when I went riding and hiking and never looked back!

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  2. What a blast from the past! I didn't realize you had traveled to Hawaii this much. No wonder it is near and dear to your heart. What an amazing way to grow up!!! You have your dad to blame for a whole lot more than photography. I look at this great series of photos and see where so many things you love began. As someone who learned photography back in the stone 'er film days, I can confidently say your dad was clearly a great photographer. Besides metering, he was really good at composition. You are lucky to have so many of his quality photographs. All those pixie cuts yee-gads, at first I thought "all the women" photo was a composite. I had the same cut when I was little too, lol. The sheer joy on your face while surfing, is priceless.

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    1. Yes we scrimped and saved all year to pay the outrageous rent of something like $150 a week for the house we rented. This so long before AirBnb and other vacation rentals. We played with the kids next door each summer.
      There is a photo I didn't include of me and my Bug Collection. I was so proud of it.

      Thanks, dad was a pretty interesting guy. But he had worked on movie sets and produced commercials as well as wrote them. A talented man for one that was tossed from High School. His story... don't know if it is true but it sounds cool.
      On his death he became world famous so he had his 15 minutes of fame.

      Here is a link that he would have loved!
      https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2005/07/08/charlie-the-tuna-creator-tom-rogers-dies/895948cd-cc95-4fa2-8d70-87fff155724c/

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  3. Anonymous9:31 AM

    Nice to have those memories and a wonderful start to a life-long hobby/craft.

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    1. He gave me so many things! I do not discount my mom who taught me how to pay attention to details and think things through. She knew how to budget, fish, hunt, garden, and harvest food. So many things she taught me and all were incredible life lessons. However, we don't see eye to eye but I still love her.

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  4. Leaping and befriending a dog all so you! Yes you must have gotten your love for photography from your Dad, although photography was a real art back then:) I enjoyed seeing your photos!

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