110 Memories

[Craig Schroeder]

My 23 year old daughter was reminding me of her first photography 
experiences and it spurred some sentimental memories of some times long 
past.  I had bought her a little Pentax 110 system with all the gizmos 
and lenses when she was about 9 years old.  She was quite mature for her 
age and was very careful with everything and had shown an interest in 
doing darkroom room things at my side.  What followed was an endless set 
of projects of Barbie fashion pictures and lighting angles, posing and 
such but all the time, teaching her some of the craft of photography. 
After a few first rolls of 95% bad shots, she learned to be more 
methodical and soon was getting a high percentage of keepers.  

She has wide-flung and varied interests these days, but her basic skills 
at composition, understanding light and camera technique continue to 
serve her well.  She keeps a high grade P&S (sorry P fans...it's German) 
with her on her travels and always seems to have very high quality 
results.  In fact, I'm sometimes frustrated at the small increment in 
quality I gain over her with all of the gear, pods, meters, etc that I 
obsess with.  Anyway, having the little Pentax was a valuable episode 
for her and though the 110 stuff has long since found a new home, will 
continue to serve her.