Return to Photography: Rekindling the Flame

(Continued from Work and Family: New Subjects Emerge)

Featured Photo: “Wife and Boys, Disney World” Orlando, Florida—2007

Looking through my old photo albums, it’s apparent that I took a multi-year hiatus from photography after college and through much of my early career. There is the occasional shot of family, friends, and places I visited, but no clear evidence that I pursued my creative side. I’m not sure why. Perhaps I simply looked past subjects that might have brought me back to photography—to inspire me to dig my camera out from the back of my closet and start clicking the shutter button. Maybe I just didn’t bother to take the time.

But when I returned to Merck for the final stage of my career, accompanied by my wife, I began to recapture my interest in photography; I found myself with the time, energy, and income to make it happen. I remembered the fun I previously had with my old Sears SLR and decided to buy new and improved photo gear. Walking into a camera shop on the Main Line near Philadelphia—sometime in 1998—I headed straight to the Canon counter, having long been envious of my brother’s original Canon FTb. I was amazed by the progress in technology since my early adventures in photography—and this was before further advances made possible by digital cameras.

I was drawn to a Canon EOS Elan IIE SLR—an innovative, high-quality, multi-feature, auto-exposure, auto-focus, film camera—and added two zoom lenses: a 28-105mm standard zoom lens, along with a medium-telephoto 75-300mm zoom lens. By rotating the “zoom ring” on the lens, I could frame the image I wanted and move it closer or farther—to crop out unwanted subject matter—without having to move closer or farther away myself. The standard zoom lens was good for subjects at a normal distance; the telephoto lens was great for those subjects even farther away and included image stabilization to counteract a sometimes-shaky hand. As with my old Sears SLR, I loved my new Canon SLR camera. As with my old Sears AUTO 500 camera, I still have my Canon EOS Elan IIE today.

Canon still uses the EOS branding—which technically stands for “Electro-Optical System”—on its current line of SLRs; but for my new camera, it was the “E” in “IIE”—for “Eye-Controlled Autofocus”—that was most remarkable: I could literally focus my Elan IIE using just my eye!

As the page above from the owner’s manual illustrates, when I looked at one of the three focusing points seen in the viewfinder, the camera would automatically focus on the subject at that particular point. This was a cool feature, but once the novelty wore off, I reverted to the approach I typically used when taking pictures: I would lock-focus on the subject with the center focus point—even if I did not want the subject in the center of the photo—and then re-compose the shot to frame the image as I wanted.

There was another “Eye-Controlled” feature, however, that was quite useful: “Depth-of-Field Preview.” This feature helped me select the best aperture—how wide or narrow the camera lens was open—to bring the subject and foreground into sharp focus, while blurring the background.

Using the “Program AE” mode—for Automatic Exposure—I could focus on a subject and the camera would select the optimal combination of aperture and shutter speed to give the correct photo exposure; this feature was like an updated and improved version of what my old Sears SLR had. But unlike my Sears camera, with my new Canon SLR, I could simply glance at the depth-of-field preview mark in the upper left corner of the viewfinder, before pressing the shutter release, and the camera would temporarily “stop down” the lens to the selected aperture, so I could see the actual range-of-focus for the photo as it would appear on film. If the depth-of-field did not give the effect I wanted, I could rotate a dial to shift the aperture/shutter speed combination to change what would be in-focus and what would be blurred, while maintaining the correct exposure.

Okay…that was a mouthful. Perhaps a few pictures—taken on a visit to the Philadelphia Zoo back in 1999—will help illustrate this feature. The following photographs of flamingos…

…and peacocks…

…all took advantage of the depth-of-field preview of my Elan IIE SLR, bringing the main subject into focus, while making the background out-of-focus. The first peacock photo above used a wider lens opening, which made the background rather blurry. The second photo below was “stopped-down” to a slightly narrower opening, making the background a bit less blurry.

For the third peacock photo below, the depth-of-field preview allowed me to select a lens aperture that made part of the subject in-focus (the head, neck, and closer-up feathers of the peacock), while the rest of the subject was out-of-focus (the peacock’s farther-away feathers).

This depth-of-field preview feature was particularly valuable since my Elan IIE camera used 35-mm film; being able to see what the final shot would look like increased the likelihood of my getting the photo I wanted. This was an important consideration, given the expense of developing and printing color film.

As with my old Kodak Pocket 110 camera, my Canon Elan IIE SLR became my frequent companion on trips. My new Canon camera reignited my creative spirit—my passion for both the craft and the art of photography. But unlike my Kodak camera, my Canon SLR did not fit in my pocket; it dangled from my shoulder when my wife and I took a vacation, in 1999, to Disney World in Orlando, Florida (a place with so many artificially created picture-perfect subjects and backdrops, just waiting to be photographed.) Here I am at Disney’s Hollywood Studios…

…and here, with my wife, in front of “The Living Seas” pavilion at EPCOT…

…with a couple of “artsy” night shots of “Spaceship Earth,” thrown in for good measure…

…taken as we exited EPCOT when the park was closing.

Another day, while we were in the Magic Kingdom, I tried to recreate a photo using my Canon SLR—with my wife by my side—looking into a mirror in the Crystal Arts Shop along “Main Street, U.S.A.” …

…just as I had done nearly 20 years before—with a friend from my high-school days—when I was using my old Sears SLR.

My wife and I had a great time in Disney World; nevertheless—and despite Disney’s claim otherwise—I would suggest that for my family, it’s Montreat, North Carolina that’s “The Happiest Place on Earth,” having spent so many carefree, summer vacations there, when my brother, two sisters, and I were growing up. My Canon Elan IIE was with me when I found myself, yet again, in Montreat—nearly 30 years after being there with my old Polaroid One-Step camera: I was relaxing on the porch of Cloud 9—the rental house where we stayed, once we could afford it—and I felt peaceful as I looked out across the lush, green mountains…

…and later, a short walk from Cloud 9, I felt rejuvenated as I stood amidst the clear, cool mountain stream. For us, Montreat is indeed a place of renewal.

I took my Canon SLR on an excursion to New York Harbor, where I gazed up from the pedestal to the crown and torch of the Statue of Liberty…

…and walked in the footsteps of countless immigrants from long ago, approaching the historic Great Hall at Ellis Island.

I used my Canon EOS Elan IIE for a little more than four years—from 1998 until late-2002—and, as I wrote in my previous post, my family was one of the main inspirations for my photography during this time. For the first two of those years, our family consisted of only my wife and myself; then we were joined, in 2000, by our first-born son. In the weeks and months following his birth, he became the main subject viewed through my camera lens.

When our second son came along, in mid-2002, the number of potential subjects for my photos increased again, and the likelihood of capturing memorable moments expanded exponentially.

In late-2002, I was still taking photographs using film; but sensing the importance of documenting—more completely—the lives of our two young boys as they grew, I realized I needed to dive into the digital world.

The Featured Photo, “Wife and Boys, Disney World,” was taken with a digital camera several years later—in 2007—when my sons were almost 5 and 7 years old. My wife and I had gone on another trip to Orlando, this time with our boys—the first of several Disney World vacations for all four of us. On our last day at Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort, where we had been staying, the boys were having fun around the giant “wooden” letter blocks located in the Toy Story section.

My wife and I walked over to them, and together, we lifted the boys onto the oversized blocks. She leaned between them—each boy on a separate block—and I crouched below them. Happy after our great vacation, all three smiled down at me from atop the blocks—you can just make out the lime-green-colored trim on the shoulder of Buzz Lightyear’s enormous space suit, high up in the background of the photo, between my wife and older son.

This photo of my wife and boys at Disney World—a keepsake from that joyful time—has held a place of honor in our study for the past decade and a half, foreshadowing what was to come: many years of fun-filled family trips, and my transition to digital photography.

(To be continued…)