I must have been 12 years or so when I got my first photocamera, a Kodak Instamatic, a few years later followed by an Olympus camera. I took pictures of things that interested me, had them developed and glued into albums with all kind of decoration. In fact I was scrapbooking before it became a popular hobby.
Soon I became the ‘familyphotographer” following in my father’s footsteps, who until then, had always taken the pictures on days out and holidays. Well, not quite true, he also made slides. I still have the boxes with slides he made after developing, and we spent many evenings watching slideshows from vacations on a big white screen.
Not only from my father’s side I inherited this photohobby, I found out later that one of my mother’s aunts shared that same hobby. Both my father and great aunt are the reason that I have so many familypictures, dating back to 1912!
In the years that followed I had a few other cameras, always simple with automatic settings, and I took hundreds of pictures, especially during familyvacations. And afterwards I always put them in photoalbums, resulting in a nice collection of albums at my parent’s house. My mother still cherishes them. I continued to do so when I started my own family. As the years went by analog cameras were replaced with digital ones, and scrapbooks became digitally created albums, but I kept on taking pictures of things that interested me, at home, special occasions and during vacations. First with just hubby and me, with our first pet, an Old English Sheepdog (Bobtail) and later with our two sons. The dog and the boys each also have their own personal albums, and even our cat got his own albums when he came into our life. The result is a room with shelfs filled with photoalbums, telling the story of my life and that of my loved ones.
Take a walk! 