Child’s Play

I have memories of using film cameras when I was small, mainly a Baby Brownie Special (a 127 Bakelite box camera) and some sort of camera with a waist-level viewfinder. I think we also had an Instamatic that took 126 film . We didn’t take a lot of photographs because that cost money, and money was not something we had much of.

What I do remember was how we got photos developed in our small town back in the 70s and 80s, before the rise of the Big Box stores. We took film to our local pharmacy, and they sent it off, and a week or so later, we had pictures (and negatives, unlike today’s chain pharmacies that destroy your negatives). Later when WalMart came along and ate up our small downtown, we started using them for photo developing as they were faster (one-hour turnaround) and cheaper. I remember getting a set of prints for as little as two dollars. Even then, cost was a limiting factor. I remember wanting to explore photography much more than I did but being held back by the cost of equipment and film and developing.

Now, as an adult with a “grownup” job, I can afford to buy old cameras and play about with developing my own film and making my own prints. It’s a privilege and a luxury — I recognize this. I also recognize that I am revisiting some of those unfulfilled childhood and teenage desires and making them real.

Blue Fisher-Price 110 camera from the 1980s

For example, I can buy the kinds of cameras that kid me might have wanted but would have never been able to afford, such as this Fisher-Price 110 camera by Kodak produced between 1984-1987 and marketed towards children. I actually would have been a little older than the target market at the time, but I do vaguely remember this being advertised and thinking it was cool that “kids these days” had such neat toys, as if at 15 I was much more than a kid myself. I was kind of going on 40 at that time, already holding down my first job, and was Very Serious, indeed. Too serious, really. My life didn’t have a lot of room for fun at that point. I’m glad, then, that I can make room for fun now and heal that kid a little bit.

I found this particular copy on eBay recently and was drawn to it because one of my friends on BlueSky had gotten one and was getting pretty decent pictures from it. I’m a big fan of 110 film and shoot my Pentax Auto 110 often so thought this would be a fun departure from that camera. For $10 plus shipping, I snagged this beauty.

Last week, before on a walk around the neighborhood, I popped a roll of Lomography’s Lomochrome Color 92 into the camera and proceeded to take pictures of whatever caught my eye as I wandered. Even though I have to admit I am not a huge fan of this particular film, I was pleased with the results, which were scanned using my Plustek 8200i and a 3D-printed negative holder I got off Etsy from OldWorldInk who makes a variety of custom negative holders for the Plustek. Enjoy the images from this fun little camera, which I wore around my neck by its built-in strap as I snapped away, capturing moments of a childhood that I’d wished I’d had.