Dad instilled a love of the camera in me from a very early age.
He also instilled in me an extreme dislike of having a camera pointed at me, but that’s another story.
Dad bought me my first camera, my second camera…..and so on. He bought me my first SLR, a Minolta, and a couple of lenses. I loved that camera for many years and, when I started looking at digital SLRs, he bought me my first one of those too, a Nikon D70. It was 2004, a gift on completing my PhD.
When the Nikon came home the Minolta became neglected until I was having a beer with a friend at UBC and he told me that his beloved film camera body had given up the ghost. He then told me that it was a Minolta X-700. As (his) luck would have it, that was exactly the camera that I had languishing in a drawer and which I happily gifted to him, along with the lens collection.
When Dad bought me the Nikon he also insisted that I needed a good lens with which to take close up photos and the Nikkor 60mm was his choice. I found a used one at Kerrisdale Cameras for a very good price and I have had it for almost 20 years now, and it is still one of my favourites. Not only because it is a very good lens, but because it makes me think of Dad.
Cameras have come a long way, even in the relatively few years since Dad passed away, but he definitely gave me the gift sight when he pressed that first little Kodak 100 Instamatic into my hands when I was about eight years old. I’ve only had the D810 for a few days but I’m enjoying playing with it so far.
