Every year August 19 is celebrated as the World Photography Day. This day marks the birth of an earliest type of photographic process known as Daguerreotype in the 1830s that employed an iodine-sensitized silvered plate and mercury vapor to create a photograph. In today’s technologically advanced era, the aspect of celebrating Photography Day is to motivate individuals to take this form of art as a hobby and, probably, as a full-time profession too! And I am glad to have motivated people around me to explore this form of art! Often times, I would elucidate the fact that the equipment (that is, a camera), itself, does not matter. Rather, the person behind it.

Photography is the art of observation of a visual to be captured and the application of representation of that visual.

Unfortunately, in the past decade and a half, the emphasis is being garnered at social media boasting unreal aspects of Photography. Please remember that the number of likes for a picture does not quantify one’s aptitude for photography. What’s important is to understand the fundamentals and explore the fantasies of this art form in many intricate ways! Once you get this core aspect of Photography, there’s no longing for an external connection to boost your morale. A mere walk-through of your own photographs will be a morale booster. This is what I have been practicing all through the years!

As part of International Photography week, I would like to share interesting insights from my early days in Photography!

Pre-Digital Photography Era:

My passion for Photography is deep-rooted to the nostalgic film roll days. It all took shape in the year 2003. As a 15-year-old boy, it was an exciting phase of my life, both academically & as a determined young mind to inculcate an extracurricular option. There was something exciting about the kind of joy that kindles even before the camera is ready to take pictures. Here, I am referring to the fanatical desire to shop for the right film roll. A good and safe bet is to buy a roll with an ISO of 400, for it allows you to shoot with varying range of lighting conditions! Personally, the most interesting part was while the film roll was being loaded into the camera and then the act of rotating the dial to make sure the very first exposure is ready to capture the scene! After each exposure, the dial is to be rotated again for the next one to be exposed! Typically, these 35 mm film rolls allow one to capture either 24 or 36 exposures (in other words, the number of photographs). Unlike today’s unending digital storage options, these film rolls require careful approach towards composition & exposure. And how can I not mention the sounds of the mechanical shutter! I loved it to the core!

At the end of 24/36 exposures, I would carefully keep the camera away from anyone to accidentally pull open. Because once it is exposed to light, there’s no way to retain your hard-fetched exposures. I would, then, take it to a camera lab for developing the exposed films. I would pray for all 36 exposures to come up well! On most occasions, it did!

I fondly remember waiting anxiously to collect the developed photographs! Then, comes the fascinating aspect of choosing a physical photo album. Getting back home with stacks of photo prints to be arranged in the photo album was joy unbounded! And, then the photo album is circulated among the members of the family! This is something that the digital photography can never bring in.

My First Camera:

As far as I can recollect, my very first camera was the Pentax PC-500. It’s a 35mm film point-and-shoot camera. It had a support for ISO 100 for slow speed film and ISO 400 for high speed films. It is powered by two AA batteries. It carried a built-in flash and when used, took approximately 5 seconds to recharge before it’s ready for the next discharge.

The year 2023 completes two fascinating decades of growth in the field of Photography. Let me know if you liked this blog in the comments section below. Also, if you have a memory with using film rolls, I would be interested to hear them! Please share your thoughts!

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