Let’s see some of the earliest photos you’ve made —

x-ray said:
I really like these. They’re a really good depiction of life at that time.

I took Polaroid for granted until it was gone and now I miss that look.
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Thank you @x-ray, they are still holding their color after 50+ years. I miss the original Polaroid films also.
 
AlexMogens said:
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I think this was from the first roll or two after I decided to pursue "photography" rather than just taking snapshots at parties or whatever. This is in Boston in 1998. I took this with an Olympus 35 SP. I must have shot from the hip. I can't imagine how else I would have taken this.
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It seems so @AlexMogens.

Just a guess - but his looks like it was shot inside an MBTA bus. Subject seems to be sitting (given his position against the window). Perhaps you shot this while standing?
 
raydm6 said:
It seems so @AlexMogens.

Just a guess - but his looks like it was shot inside an MBTA bus. Subject seems to be sitting (given his position against the window). Perhaps you shot this while standing?
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Definitely MBTA... at the time I took the bus to work most days. That was in my university administrator days. Yeah, I think I must have been standing and shooting from the hip. At some point I developed a disdain for doing that, but I'm not sure why.
 
Barong and Kris Dance.
Gianyar Bali.
Made in the 1990s using a Nikon 801s and 100 ISO or 200 ISO color slide film the shutter speed was far too slow for the ambient lighting. But I somehow like the movement blur that results and the lush colors of the costume. It reminds me in fact, of some old color photos published in Life magazine, of exotic places unseen by most Western eyes - before the world grew quite so small.

Barong and Kris Dance, Gianyar, Bali by Life in Shadows, on Flickr
 
raydm6 said:
Some more early-70’s Polaroids. I still have some of the items.

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1940’s era Philco B&W TV 📺 set. The bottom cabinet/stand was made by my Dad - a professional cabinet maker. To the right, an old RCA turntable console.

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I believe that was my old Remington typewriter, Fender Champ amplifier, old Zenith tube Radio. I still have the Harmon mute, Wetsclock alarm ⏰ clock, and Indian brass incense holder sitting atop the radio.
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Looks like a Royal, maybe a KMG? Great photo, like peering through a Time Machine!
 
p.giannakis said:
A person selling hair combs and wallets.
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Combs, interesting. In Saigon, it's mostly sunglasses that give the highest mark-up. This said the street selling economy is complicated: you can't just plop down somewhere and sell your wares... instead, you'll have to pay a 'tax' to someone who 'owns' the street you're selling on. Sometimes this person wears a uniform and sometimes this uniformed person is not the sole proprietor of your street... Welcome to 1.01 capitalism.
 
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Out to Lunch said:
Combs, interesting. In Saigon, it's mostly sunglasses that give the highest mark-up. This said the street selling economy is complicated: you can't just plop down somewhere and sell your wares... instead, you'll have to pay a 'tax' to someone who 'owns' the street you're selling on. Sometimes this person wears a uniform and sometimes this uniformed person is not the sole proprietor of your street... Welcome to 1.01 capitalism.
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Not "capitalism". That's theft and thuggery.
 
Out to Lunch said:
Combs, interesting. In Saigon, it's mostly sunglasses that give the highest mark-up. This said the street selling economy is complicated: you can't just plop down somewhere and sell your wares... instead, you'll have to pay a 'tax' to someone who 'owns' the street you're selling on. Sometimes this person wears a uniform and sometimes this uniformed person is not the sole proprietor of your street... Welcome to 1.01 capitalism.
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I was too young then to figure this out but it must have been similar back then as these sellers had their own spots in the streets.

There were also street markets with people from the Eastern Block selling Soviet tools every Sunday (I got a set of binoculars from them) and had their own designated places. It fizzled out after the collapse of the Soviet Union and stopped completely by mid-90s.
 
The earliest photo that I made that I still like - I had a box-camera at the age of 4, but I never removed the film that was in it - is this one from 1973. I made it with a Nikkormat FTn.

I got my first real camera, an Ilford Sportsman 300, at the age of fifteen, in 1969, but I never developed the film that was in it. After that there was a period that I photographed with dual-eyed reflex cameras 6x6 cm: a Hacoflex and a Yashica Mat. I learned photography with those, but at the moment I do not have a single print from that era, unfortunately.

gelatin silver print (nikkor h auto 50mm f2) nikkormat ftn

Utrecht, 1973

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