This is my very first blog post, so I though it would be appropriate to make it about the very first camera I ever owned, the Canon AE-1. Almost 8 years ago, I majored in Photography at The Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design. One day, I found myself sitting in Black and White 101. Since it was a 100-level course, most students had borrowed manual SLR cameras to see if they were interested in photography before investing in something bigger.
Back in the 80’s, the Canon AE-1 was probably the most popular SLR and 70% percent of the people in my class had one (or variants of it). With an all metal finish and a shutter that squealed loudly when you took a picture, it wasn’t super attractive but was built like a tank and could take a beating. At the time, most students couldn’t afford a digital SLR like the Canon 1D ($8,000.00 for a 4MP camera), so many of us stuck with film. Occasionally, I’d be in the darkroom and see someone with a huge black complicated looking camera and a big zoom lens. I’d drool and think to myself, “Man, I have a crappy plain jane boring camera with a dinky lens.” I longed and lusted after a better camera than what I had at the time.
In hindsight, this camera taught me everything I know about photography. Using it was simple:
- Look into the view finder
- Check the light meter
- Adjust your shutter and aperture
- Press click
Of course, this being a film camera, I had no idea what the results were until I made my contact sheets. Over the years I must have put 100s of rolls of film through it, including a photoshoot with Bif Naked. Of course, Murphy’s Law being what it is, I went to cock the shutter to take a photo and my camera jammed.
I never did end up fixing it, nor can I say I took amazing photos with it, but to this day it sits on my shelf as a reminder of where I started.
