So I’m sitting in the drive thru, waiting for my Ultimate Heart-Attack on a Bun with cheese the other day and I came to an odd realization.

When I first started going through this particular drive thru, the person at the window hadn’t even been born yet.

When did that happen? I don’t feel that old. I reflected on it for a bit and other things from that time period, from that summer came to mind.

I had just graduated high school and was working four days a week at a computer-tech related job. That sounds fancy, but I spent much of my time there pulling cable for the network. The pay was good, $4 an hour over minimum wage – $6 an hour. Not much now, of course, but then it was big money. I spent the other three days a week working at Six Flags for the folks that do those little photo keychains in the plastic magnifier. With commissions, I actually made more there than I did at the other job.

The camera equipment we used there was a little Olympus half frame point and shoot with a DIY flash unit/bracket that could deliver quite a shock up your left arm if something went wrong.. like say, it was raining. These things took 35mm film, but only used half the traditional 35mm frame. It was processed in a giant machine in the back using E-6 processing (slide film). Still today, I have one of the wrist straps that came with that camera – its part of my keychain.

I learned a lot about customer service at that job, not to mention sales. If you ever think dealing with the public is difficult in an air conditioned setting, think about what it was like in 100 degrees when the customer is soaking wet from the water ride, their feet hurt, and their legs are chaffed from walking around in wet clothes… and then you can’t find their photo because the claim ticket also got wet and the ink ran.

I spent most of the money I earned that summer on camera stuff and gasoline… and the occasional after close, 2am run to Denny’s.

It was a magical time, that summer between high school and college. Some of the life skills I earned that summer still serve me well today. I’ve lost track of the people from then, but some of them still feature prominently in my memory.. Beth, Bibi, Thurman, Shawn, Laurie, and Kim. Good times.

In a way, it seems like yesterday, but it was 25 years ago this coming summer. I look at the technology we have today that is supposed to make it easier than ever before, but really those same skills I learned that summer – how to interact with people, how to pose quickly on the fly, how to compose the image are still more important than the camera itself. Those skills are why you seek out a professional photographer rather than the friend or relation that just spent a bundle on their new camera. There is no substitute for experience and no automatic mode for composition.

25 years ago, I thought it was just beginning. But the Beginning is Now.