December 4 – Wonder

How did you cultivate a sense of wonder in your life this year?

This year it has been all about re-discovering and engaging with my creativity. It has been a wonderful adventure, especially meeting new people with similar passions and sharing in their creative journeys too.

When I was young, I was fascinated by cameras and the pictures that they took.  My father, who always seemed to have his camera with him, probably sparked the interest in me.  He would take pictures of the family or places we visited and process the film into slides, which he would show to us using his German-made slide project and a white wall.

My fascination for cameras grew, and I have owned several different cameras in my life time.   I remember buying my first camera, a Brownie 127, from a local jumble sale.   I don’t know whether I ever actually used it properly, as the film was too fiddly to load  and the camera it was probably too bulky and cumbersome to use on a regular basis.

Image from The Brownie Camera Page

When I was about eleven, I was given a second-hand Kodak Pocket Instamtic 100 (possibly by my grandparents), which I still have and I remember using on my first trip down to London for a youth rally.  But my first real camera, which was I received as a Christmas present, was a Polaroid 600.  I was in love.  The instant nature of the Polaroid was a pure delight and allowed me to see immediately the fruits of my labour.  But the expense of the film limited my use so it eventually just sat in my wardrobe unused for the vast majority of the year.  I have also owned a couple of pocket cameras, one of which was a APS camera.   But it was the advent of digital that revived in me my fascination for photography.  It offered me freedom as well as the ability to capture that important shot. 

Discovering and growing through creativity has been exciting and thrilling journey.  I have really enjoyed re-capturing the sense of wonderment and possibility I experienced as a child through the medium of photography.