I think I first fell in love with a camera during one of my families annual trips back East to visit the family. It was a Brownie box camera, late to be replaced by a Starmite. It certainly was the camera which I recalled later in life when I purchased my first medium format professional camera. The film loaded almost the same way. I was back to no cartridges.

The thing about the Brownie was that while I had a poor forward view during our rad trips, I could turn around, place it on the top of the back seat aiming out the rear window, and get some great (I thought) pictures of the road, especially going through the Rockies.

The Brownie also provided this kid with something to do when surrounded by relatives who I only saw once a year. It also was a good way to become part of things when I wanted to. No one said no to posing for a picture.

But I know I first fell in love with an image I had created when I was 17. I was on the Palatine Hill by the Forum, turned to my left, saw the Coliseum through the trees and grabbed the shot. I still have that negative and a couple of prints I made from it. There it is, complete ignorance guided by some greater power, had given me a perfectly exposed image of the classic side of the Coliseum beautifully framed by the foliage. I accepted without thanks that gift & spent the rest of my life excavating my artistic eye and developing the skills to make the captured image look like the one I "saw" when I pushed the button.