Dan's Cameras Part Two - Germany

My adventures in photography started when I was 16.  That was the year my best friend John and I decided that we were going to go to Germany together.  Three whole weeks.  I paid my own way, saving up my money while washing dishes at Antonio’s Restaurant.  Fortunately we were going to keep costs down by staying with John’s grandmother (Oma).  Still I didn’t have a lot of extra cash and I knew I wanted to take “good” pictures while I was over there, so what was I going to do?Fortunately my Aunt Pat came to my rescue.  Instead of a small 110 instamatic (that seemingly everyone used) that my folks had, she agreed to loan me one of her old 35 mm cameras.  By old, I mean old.  I’d never heard of Argus, and I’d never seen a camera like it, but it was a 35mm camera.

DCF 1.0

I had a friend whose father was a photographer and he offered to give me a few tips before I left on my trip.  So one afternoon I went over to his house and showed him the camera.  My fears about whether this thing was for real were assuaged when he immediately lit up and said, “Oh, those old Arguses are great little cameras!”  

Lucky for me he realized that I wasn’t going to learn the technical aspects of photography in a week so he kept it nice and simple.  He basically showed me how to use the light meter and adjust the controls on the camera to get get a proper exposure - set the ASA (now ISO) from the film type on the meter, point it at the subject and turn the dial so needle was centered, then set a corresponding shutter speed and aperture combination on the camera, point, focus and shoot.  He gave me one tip - keep the shutter speed in the mid-range of the dial and/or be very careful about shaking the camera.  Oh yeah, and use Kodachrome 64 for my film.  That was it.  

He also recommended that I shoot a roll of film and get it processed before I leave just to make sure the camera worked.  Well, I shot the roll, but being the teenager that I was, I never got around to processing it.  I left for Germany with a camera that I didn’t even know would work!

Long story short - they turned out.  I was mesmerized when I looked at those images.  I was hooked!