If I could have a camera in my hands everyday...what a world you would see.
I'm Beci Markijohn, native of Westfield, NY and current resident of North Carolina. I've lived here in N.C for almost 23 years. My roots are of a country girl, even though I've resided near cities most of my life. I have numerous bins of photos from my early life and now tons of folders on my computer and external hard drive, too.
My first camera was a little Kodak Instamatic X15F with drop-in 126 size film cartridges, it began my love for capturing images. It went to camp with me, all around the house, family gatherings, school field trips and anywhere outside. You name an event and it went with me. To have a 35mm camera was a big deal to me and my parents finally gave me one for Christmas. I still have it somewhere in a box.
I took black & white photography courses in college using my father's 35mm Pentax Spotmatic. I had coveted that camera my whole life. My dad had taken slides with that camera from Salt Lake City, Las Vegas, Yellowstone National Forest...places that I could only dream about and beg my dad to run the slides so I could hear his stories. He had taken pictures of our family throughout my whole life with that very camera. It seemed to me like a family institution. On the day I graduated from Meredith College, I had it with me and thanked my dad for letting me use it during my classes. My dad hugged me and whispered, "The Pentax is yours." I immediately cried, it was the greatest graduation present I could have imagined.
Fast forward a couple years, through the beginnings of digital photography. I was a staunch believer that no digital camera would ever come close to the clarity and quality of my film camera. Everything that was out in digital was grainy, it broke down quickly if you tried to enlarge an image and overall, I thought they were terrible. However, as technology rapidly advanced into higher megapixels, constantly improving quality, the ability to see an image immediately after taking it and being able to delete one if you didn't like it, not to mention manipulation on a computer...I was slowly being won over to the dark side, the digital side. I was soon scanning everything I could read about digital SLR(single lens reflex) cameras with subscriptions to Popular Photography, Outdoor Photography and American Photo. I had recently started working at an apartment community in 2006 when one of my residents came in with a camera around his neck. I asked him what he was shooting with and thereby began a friendship with a fellow shutterbug, Earl Cox. We chatted about photography whenever time (and my job) allowed. Soon, he was in the market for a Nikon D200 and offered to let me buy his Nikon D70. I couldn't believe it. He brought me the camera, a bag and bunches of other goodies including manuals, a remote and extra batteries (what a Godsend those have been!). Being a single person paying all my own bills, I tried to save up to pay him for the camera. I finally had a check for him but when I handed it to him, he gave it back to me. He gave me that D70.
Many thanks go to my parents for giving me quite a few of my early cameras, my dad Jerry for the best graduation present ever and to Earl Cox for my cherished D70.
I hope you enjoy the world through my lens.

All photos (c) 2000-2012 Rebecca Markijohn/Fyrefly Foto. All Rights Reserved.