Michigan Exposures Looks Back

I was looking through some of my picture folders tonight and I stumbled across some of my older pictures.  Most of these were taken with my first digital camera, the Kodak DC-240.  Actually it wasn't a bad camera for the time.  Digital cameras were still pretty much in their infancy at that time.  This one was at the middle of the pack for resolution at 2 megapixels.  It was a couple of years before the resolution would really shoot up.

All of these pictures pre-date this blog but I was starting to get interested in serious photography.  One of the nice things about digital cameras is that you can do some experimenting and not waste film in the process.  It really helps as you are learning about the camera and re-learning photography.

As I've said in the past, I cut my teeth on film.  I took a photography class in High School and played around a little bit before college.  I didn't have much time to play around in college but I found myself with some time after college.  I wasn't serious about it though and was pretty much taking pictures for the sake of taking pictures.  I played around for a little while and then I went down to the Air Force Museum with a friend of mine and he had a digital camera.  At that point, I knew I needed one.

This was one of my earliest pictures with my digital camera.  And I really like it because of the way the fog obscures the second tower.  Sadly, the picture doesnt' have the resolution or I would use it more.  This was probably one of the first shortcomings I ran across with the camera.

 This one is a nice enough shot though.  Fairly clear but I think I've learned more about photography since this one.

Little did I realize, this shot would be a pre-cursor of things to come.  I've always liked ships but it seems I would run across them accidently.  When I took these pictures, I never realized it would be an obsession.  Based on some of the later pictures, I think this is the Walter McCarthy but I'm not sure.  As for the picture, it's nice enough but still the resolution is limiting.

Ships lines up at the Locks.  I really wish I could tell the ship behind the McCarthy.  Looking at the fence and stuff, this picture seems almost ancient.

The McCarthy leaving the lock.  This shot could be one of my current ones with a higher resolution.

 The Tahquamenon Falls.  Same with this one.

Little did I realize, this shot would also be a pre-cursor of sorts.  I tried sports photography with a film camera but it was tough going through shot after shot to find that I didn't quite get what I was looking for.  Unfortunately, there was a pretty slow response time on the camera, so it was kind of a timing thing for me.  I don't think the camera had a burst mode either because that would have helped.

Air shows were another difficult thing.  The zoom didn't help and the timing didn't help.



This would have been a nicer shot with a better zoom.

At least the zoom doesn't matter indoors but things like ISO settings and shutter speed do.  Sadly, that was a thing that I couldn't control on this camera.

 A star destroyer.

I think this shot was taken with my Panasonic but I don't remember. 

My old cat Floyd.  He died about 6 months after getting him.

 The USS Quincy in Boston.  I think if I were to take this shot now, I'd try to get closer to get the wires out of the picture as much as possible.

A shot from a Tall Ships Festival in Bay City.  I think I was starting to get a little better.

One last shot from the Kodak.
I still have the Kodak and I would be tempted to do a series of photos with it.  It's been a while that I've used it so I'm not terribly familiar with its limitations anymore but I think I could do some nice shots.  I'm still pretty convinced that while having a good camera helps there is more to photography than just having a good camera.  I think I could accomplish the same thing with my iPhone.

I like to think that I've grown a bit in my photography though.