Camera Lessons
- This was posted on July 23, 2010
When I was thirteen I was given my first camera. It was a 1950s model Argus that had belonged to my grandfather. It weighed so much my wrist would cramp while trying to hold it up to my eye. The manual gear was so stiff I practically took my fingerprints off trying to work it. Because every part of the camera was manual and I was a completely inexperienced thirteen-year old, most of my photos turned out pretty terrible. To help me out, my dad gave me an old light meter in a gray plastic case on a black lanyard. I felt very professional with my two-ton Argus and separate light meter both hanging around my neck, no flash of course though.
I remember having it on a family trip and taking too many pictures of baby ducks and of my youngest sister in a big straw hat with the sun radiating out of it like a halo around her head. My Argus sits on a shelf now with a companion that came to me many years later—a matching Argus that happened to have belonged to my other grandfather. It seems fitting that I should have them both. I didn’t become a famous photographer, in fact, I never even became very good at it. Even with two semesters of photography in college, I preferred playing in the dark room instead of actually learning how to manipulate the camera.
The cameras are artifacts of a time when they were cutting edge technology. They are sentimental objects to me because of who they belonged to and what history they captured. The Argus’s weight is comforting to me now, like an old friend that I cradle with both hands. If you are looking for cash for structured settlement, you want to find someone you trust like an old friend to guide you through the process of exchanging payments received over time for a lump cash sum. When you sell annuity payments you want a firm that can expertly maneuver through any complications or technicalities to help you reach your goal, separate light meter not included.
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