By the time I thought I was a grown-up I'd already had a couple of cameras. My first one was a pin-hole camera made from a Quaker Oats box. I had a Polaroid that you had to spread the fixer on when it had developed enough for you. I'd even had an old Kodak somebody gave me that meant finding a closet to load the film into.

By the time I thought I was a grown-up I'd already had a couple of cameras. My first one was a pin-hole camera made from a Quaker Oats box. I had a Polaroid that you had to spread the fixer on when it had developed enough for you. I'd even had an old Kodak somebody gave me that meant finding a closet to load the film into.
Then I got my first "real" camera. A grown-up camera ! It must have weighed about six pounds and it was made in Russia but I was hooked. I started developing my own B&W film. I even had a person I knew of the female persuasion let me take pictures of her with no clothes on. She kept the negatives, if I remember correctly.
Then, after only a couple of months, it got stolen. I was devastated. I have always said that if you have anything you can't afford to lose, you probably shouldn't have it to begin with. So I didn't get another "real" camera for a long, long time.
I'm hooked again. I feel just as excited as I was way back when. Here's what she looked like. (the camera, not the girl)