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| My First Roll of 35mm Film - 1959 PAGE 1 Uncle Irving and Aunt Nila gave me a Kodak Signet 40 35mm camera for high school graduation. Before then I used cameras that used 127 roll film. The Signet 40 was all manual and had no focusing aids. Focus and exposure were adjusted by estimation. It came with Kodak's standard flashgun that would also fit Kodak Brownies. I used a 20-exposure roll of Kodak Plus X Pan film. (Click on the 'thumbnails' to see the larger versions.) |
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| Frame 1 I received my camera at the graduation program and I think this was taken the following day. This is certainly an inauspicious start, but it is the first of my photos on 35mm film. The senior class sponsored the Annual Alumni Banquet and apparently we were getting ready. The banquet was held on the Friday before Mothers' Day. |
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| Frame 2 I was shy about asking the pretty girls to pose, but my good friend J. W. was not. This may have been in the gym at the program following the banquet. |
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| Frame 3 Helen was the younger sister of a girl in our graduating class. She was standing by the rock wall of the gym. I think the WPA built the gym. |
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| Frame 4 Phyllis and J. W. in the back seat of my 1949 Oldsmobile 98. The two of them double-dated with Margie and me that graduation weekend. |
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| Frame 5 Two girls at the hamburger shop where we ate that night. |
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| Frame 6 Here are the four of us at the hamburger shop. I guess we were feeling pretty mature. We weren't drinking alcoholic beverages though; the bottle is just a prop. I haven't seen Margie since that night. She hasn't attended any reunions. My high school sweetheart and I had broken up at the end of 11th grade. |
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| Frame 9 These roses are near my Grandpa Maxwell's house. It's difficult to get good photos of plants in black and white, but I do have a few nice ones. Frame 8 had a long depth of focus so the details of the house were visible. I shortened the depth of field in this shot to soften the focus on the house. |
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| Frame 10 This magazine table was built by my father in high school shop class. It stayed in Grandpa and Grandma Maxwell's living room from the time my dad went to war in 1944 until Grandpa moved in with my mother in the late 60's. One of my sisters has it now. |
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