Times change

The photo in my avatar, taken in the early 1950s, shows me with my Miniature Speed Graphic, not miniature by today's reckoning but so-called because it was a scaled-down version of the standard American press camera of its time which featured in many Hollywood movies showing wise-guy news men in 'regulation dress' of trench coat and fedora with a 'PRESS' ticket stuck in the hat band making a nuisance of themselves all over the world with the grown-up version of this camera.  

It was too much for a red-blooded teen just out of school to resist, and I think played a large part in determining my future career.

The camera in my hand today is just a little smaller and a lot less impressive but it has some advantages, not least of which is that it lives happily in my shirt pocket ready for action without having to reload film and/or flashbulbs and reset the shutter for each shot and does not require hours n the darkroom messing with chemicals to produce first a negative and then a print, but d'ya know what?   I still have fond memories of those days and the immense relief of finding a 'great' shot after an anxious wait to see the result.

Things are certainly different today . . . I no longer wear a trench coat, and my dark shiny hair is but a memory, but I do wear a hat outdoors now to protect my shiny pate!