My dad, Mel Thieme, passed away in 2005.  When going through his things, I found the receipt for his camera, the Rolleiflex pictured.  He used this camera my whole life.  It takes great pictures.  Unfortunately, I never learned to use it.  I have my more "modern" camera that I love.

When I was growing up, I heard about how before I was born, my dad had a darkroom and developed his images himself.  I just remember this room as a very dark storage closet.  He got rid of his developing equipment because his hobby had become too expensive. EVERY PHOTOGRAPHER KNOWS THIS FEELING.

Fast forward about 25 years when I bought my first film SLR camera.  I took a black and white film class where we developed our own photos.  I loved it and learned a lot.  So, I bought a bunch of developing equipment and blacked out the windows in my laundry room. My dad and I did get to go "shooting" together some (he did try to teach me about his Rolleiflex).  Then came digital.  Ah, the joy.  Yes, I donated all of my developing equipment.

My dad and I had a lot in common.  I am sure I inherited my love of photography from my dad.  The photograph I am holding in the picture is of my dad when he was in a high school photography class.   See if you can follow this --- he took a picture of himself taking a picture of himself.  If you look close, you can see that it is not perfect as his legs where he is seated are see through.  But that is not the most interesting thing about the picture.  The most interesting thing was (look close at him seated) that he was SMOKING A PIPE IN HIGH SCHOOL!  

Cell phone photo courtesy of my hubby, Steve.