Linda and I have been cleaning out the garage for the past few weeks and in doing so, I came across some old boxes of negatives and slides that I haven't seen in almost 15 years. Today, I started going through them, sorting out the stuff I wasn't ruthless enough to toss 15 years ago. As I sorted, I found some priceless photos of my/our dogs. I'd like to share some of them with you.

First up is Bernadette the St. Bernard.



Bernadette was my first dog -- I never had one as a child. She came into a Rescue Facility where I was volunteering at about a year of age and once I saw her, I fell in love. She loved and respected our cat, Sandford. She was 185 lbs. of sweet and gentle. She lived to be 13 years old, remarkable for a Saint. And I'm sure that today, she is a Saint.

When Linda and I first moved down to Orlando from Hamden, Connecticut in 1989, we brought with us out two Golden Retrievers, Harvey and Molly, the yuppie puppies. In 1996, when these pictures were taken, Harvey was 12 years old and Molly was 11. Here's Harvey Garvie:



And his sister, Molly:



A week after these pictures were taken, Molly passed away from hemangiocarcoma. She was one of the sweetest girls I've ever known. And after she left us, Harvey was just devastated. Here's a shot I took of him a few weeks later and in it, he's really showing his age.



That's when we decided that he -- and we -- needed another puppy and that puppy was our first Rottie, Annie Fay.

Here's a picture of Annie the first day she arrived in Orlando from Buffalo, NY.



Somewhere I have pictures of Harvey wearing Annie like a cape when she first came into the house. He became like a puppy again and for Annie, he was her true Alpha male. Harvey lived to be 15 years old and, when he left us, his coat had turned pure white. But during those years with Annie, he helped her deliver and nurse two litters of puppies and became the model of behavior for Rowdy. Harvey was my first puppy and the dog that taught me all about aging with dignity and grace. I miss him -- and the others -- every day.

Jim

Wow. What a trip down memory lane.

Hey Jim,

This is a great series for so many reasons. Thank you for sharing it.

James

What a lovely set of memories. Thanks for sharing.

I was trying to figure out what camera I was using back in "those days" for these shots. For the picture of Bernadette, I was using a Nikon F2. Can't remember the lens but it looks like the 50 F1.2.

For the Harvey, Molly and Annie shots, I had moved to Canon and that was my Canon 1N with a medium zoom, 28-70 F2.8L. For folks who have gotten into photography after digital became the medium of choice, it's difficult to understand what it was like to take pictures and then have to wait a week to see the results. And, often, the prints were at the discretion of the lab that printed them. If you purposely over- or under-exposed a shot, they'd "adjust" it for you. But think of it: no chimping. You had to know what you were trying to get and how to get it. If you were using selective focus or trying to throw a background out of focus, you had to preview using the depth-of-field button. The closest thing we had to instant feedback was taking Polaroids of the scene and checking our lighting that way.

And, with the Nikons, there was no auto-focus. You actually had to turn the focus ring! Why . . . it was almost like . . . PHOTOGRAPHY!

Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan of progress especially that of technology. But there was something special in visualizing an image and then finding out that you had done the correct things technically to create it. Think about action photography and weddings in that kind of environment. Scary huh?

Jim

These are wondeful. I had a Canon TL QL with ONE lens, a 50 1.8 I really had no idea why I did things, just that I had to make the matchstick go level to make the photos come out. I still have that camera, but, the winder broke

Winder?!!! My old Nikon F2 had the thumb advance lever, single throw. Back in the 80's, my Leica M3 was a double-throw thumb advance lever. I actually liked that better than the single throws. Go figure!

And most of the film cameras came with a standard 50 mm lens which actually taught you how to frame and move and focus to get the shots you wanted. Zooms were rare or simply not available. The advantage of single focal-length lenses is that you have to think about the scene you're shooting and match what you're trying to do with the right lens. With zooms, you can frame without having to move. I like the ease of zooms but I love the creativity required to use primes well.

When I think about how we shot weddings back "in the old days" I marvel at what it took both physically and creatively. We had at least 2 cameras with lenses, 50 to 100 rolls of film, big "potato-masher" flash units wired to big, heavy batteries attached to our belts and we shot all day and most of the night. And then we sweated for 2 weeks until the proofs came in. Talk about stress!

Jim

Oh, that's what I mean, the thumb winder thing. You know, that makes the ratcheting noise when you wind it! Ratchet, ratchet, ready to shoot.

Film advance lever is the formal name . And then there was that little handle that you popped up on the top of the take-up spool to rewind the film into the canister. Talk about things I DON'T miss.

Jim