What is your happiest Christmas camera related memory

[lxmike]

I had been dabbling with cameras, (mainly Kodak Instamatics, x177, Halina 110 etc), back in the late 1970's, fast forward to 1981 and my parents bought me a Pentax MV with an SMC M 50/2 lens, I thought I was the bees knees with this camera. Anyway, my first trip out with it was to a local park on Boxing day, this year on Boxing day I am going out to the same park, (Saltwell Park), this time with my Leica M2. Whats your favorite Christmas camera/photography related memory? Happy Christmas everyone🙂

 

[helen.HH]

pulling on Santa's beard (my older cousin told me to do it)
only to see and realize it was my Brother disguised as Santa (he was 23 years older than me)

I no longer have the photo, who knows what camera used by some relative
but I can perfectly remember the photo
Santa looking shocked and me bursting into tears

The fairytale broken... but still holds a fond memory of Christmas,
Family, and Innocence.

 

[p.giannakis]

Christmas 1991 for me - after two years of trying to persuade my parents to fund my first camera purchase, they agreed to give me the money for one. I went to a tiny shop which was selling mostly cameras from the Eastern Bloc and after a long and unseccessful haggle over a Praktica MTL5, i ended up buying a Praktica BMS with a 50f/1.8.

 

[lxmike]

pulling on Santa's beard (my older cousin told me to do it)
only to see and realize it was my Brother disguised as Santa (he was 23 years older than me)

I no longer have the photo, who knows what camera used by some relative
but I can perfectly remember the photo
Santa looking shocked and me bursting into tears

The fairytale broken... but still holds a fond memory of Christmas,
Family, and Innocence.

Only recently my sons, (now 21 and 26) admitted that they were never fooled but pretended to be when I dressed up as Santa, those were the days.

 

[lxmike]

pulling on Santa's beard (my older cousin told me to do it)
only to see and realize it was my Brother disguised as Santa (he was 23 years older than me)

I no longer have the photo, who knows what camera used by some relative
but I can perfectly remember the photo
Santa looking shocked and me bursting into tears

The fairytale broken... but still holds a fond memory of Christmas,
Family, and Innocence.

Only recently my sons, (now 21 and 26) admitted that they were never fooled but pretended to be when I dressed up as Santa, those were the days.

 

[lxmike]

Christmas 1991 for me - after two years of trying to persuade my parents to fund my first camera purchase, they agreed to give me the money for one. I went to a tiny shop which was selling mostly cameras from the Eastern Bloc and after a long and unseccessful haggle over a Praktica MTL5, i ended up buying a Praktica BMS with a 50f/1.8.

My friend at school, Ian, was a big Praktica used to own a MTL5, he also owned a BMS, he bought it when they were first launched, when ever I see a Prakitca I think of him and the time he tried, unsuccessfully, to jump clear over a five bar gate, he did not even clear the frst three bars of the gate. He got some amazing results with his Prakitcas. Do you still use yours?

 

[p.giannakis]

He got some amazing results with his Prakitcas. Do you still use yours?

No, it is long gone. The B-series Prakticas are nothing like the previous M42 line. Shutters are quite unreliable. Mine lasted 5 years despite treating it like a jewel.

 

[lxmike]

No, it is long gone. The B-series Prakticas are nothing like the previous M42 line. Shutters are quite unreliable. Mine lasted 5 years despite treating it like a jewel.

Yep the old Prakticas were built like granite, they were tanks🙂

 

[Darthfeeble]

The yellow and brown box that started all this nonsense.

 

[dourbalistar]

Unlike some of the venerable members here on RFF, I am a relative newcomer to photography. After my son was born in 2013, I bought my first "serious" camera, a Sony NEX-5T. On Boxing Day that year, I took receipt of my first manual focus lens, an adapted C-mount CCTV lens. It's more of a toy lens really, but here's one of the first test shots I took. Nearly seven years later, I am a full-fledged camera nerd, but now mostly using film cameras. I still take lots of photos of my son (and family), and the Sony NEX-5T is still being used to digitize my film. 😀


Fujian 35mm f/1.7 Test Shot by dourbalistar, on Flickr

 

[Horatio]

Getting my first camera, a green Kodak Instamatic. It was a gift from my grandmother. I always thought the flash cubes were pretty cool. A close second was the Christmas I got a Vivitar enlarger.

 

[Archiver]

Great thread idea! Merry Christmas to everyone!

A few years ago, I found a sheaf of photos that Dad took at the family Christmas lunch in the mid 80s with a point and shoot that we no longer have. Four or five families gathered at my now deceased great-uncle's house, and we all opened presents, sat on the floor to play games, and ate through several courses of food including prawn and potato salad, turkey, ham, lobster tails and roast vegetables. I'd forgotten that particular lunch, but memories flooded back when I saw Dad's photos. So that's kind of camera related, I guess.

For the past 15 or more years, it's been my self appointed role to document the now much smaller Christmas gatherings. I've watched my cousins graduate from uni and get jobs and enter their careers. noted the empty space after my grandmother passed away a few years ago, and we're now looking at this being the last Christmas at its current location, due to a future house sale. I shoot the food in preparation and serving, the decorations, opening presents, all all the rest of it. While this isn't a specific happiest camera related Christmas memory, I like to think that I'm collecting all our happy memories for everyone to enjoy in years to come. Kind of like what Dad did that one Christmas in the 80s.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

Been together. Means a lot if you immigrated not from good reasons. Or just due to c19 these days...



Orthodox Dinning. by Kostya Fedot, on Flickr

 

[Doug]

Looks like happy family - have a merry Christmas Ko.Fe. !

 

[skucera]

There are several good Christmas memories:

I got my first camera as a Christmas present in my freshman year of college... a Pentax Auto 110. It was the beginning of a decades log hobby. My heart soared.

I also really enjoyed the Christmases after each of my children was born. I have lots of pictures of all three. This was also an era of huge technological change, so I was indulging in the new thing of digital photography and posting baby pictures on web pages so grandmas in far-off parts of the country could see their newest grandbabies.

Last, the first Christmas after I received my wife's grandfather's Leica camera kit as a gift, I really enjoyed taking pictures of the whole family, three generations, with an M3 with its original bulb flash unit that I'd freshly revived with new capacitors and batteries. That was geeky fun.

Good memories all....

Scott

 

[jarski]

Christmas 2009 I was playing with Kodachrome 64 film. it was already known that last processor in Texas would soon stop processing the film, so went and bought couple rolls just to have the experience. (edit: not Texas but Kansas, where Dwayne's Photo is 😛 )

I was using F100 with a good meter, and fast 50 lens, but mid winter nordic light (and perhaps cold weather) resulted lot of under exposed shots. Here's couple somewhat usable:

 

[lxmike]

The yellow and brown box that started all this nonsense.

Nice was it a Kodak moment

 

[lxmike]

Getting my first camera, a green Kodak Instamatic. It was a gift from my grandmother. I always thought the flash cubes were pretty cool. A close second was the Christmas I got a Vivitar enlarger.

Ah the good old flash cube, happy memories🙂

 

[lxmike]

Unlike some of the venerable members here on RFF, I am a relative newcomer to photography. After my son was born in 2013, I bought my first "serious" camera, a Sony NEX-5T. On Boxing Day that year, I took receipt of my first manual focus lens, an adapted C-mount CCTV lens. It's more of a toy lens really, but here's one of the first test shots I took. Nearly seven years later, I am a full-fledged camera nerd, but now mostly using film cameras. I still take lots of photos of my son (and family), and the Sony NEX-5T is still being used to digitize my film. 😀


Fujian 35mm f/1.7 Test Shot by dourbalistar, on Flickr

What a lovely image a great keepsake

 

[lxmike]

Great thread idea! Merry Christmas to everyone!

A few years ago, I found a sheaf of photos that Dad took at the family Christmas lunch in the mid 80s with a point and shoot that we no longer have. Four or five families gathered at my now deceased great-uncle's house, and we all opened presents, sat on the floor to play games, and ate through several courses of food including prawn and potato salad, turkey, ham, lobster tails and roast vegetables. I'd forgotten that particular lunch, but memories flooded back when I saw Dad's photos. So that's kind of camera related, I guess.

For the past 15 or more years, it's been my self appointed role to document the now much smaller Christmas gatherings. I've watched my cousins graduate from uni and get jobs and enter their careers. noted the empty space after my grandmother passed away a few years ago, and we're now looking at this being the last Christmas at its current location, due to a future house sale. I shoot the food in preparation and serving, the decorations, opening presents, all all the rest of it. While this isn't a specific happiest camera related Christmas memory, I like to think that I'm collecting all our happy memories for everyone to enjoy in years to come. Kind of like what Dad did that one Christmas in the 80s.

I love how photos do that,music also does that for me, hear a certain song and boom I'm back in the summer of 1975 on my first skateboard, (deluxe flyer), have a great Christmas by the way🙂