This summer I parted with my Panasonic FZ50. The experience was bittersweet.

It was in 2006 that I decided to buy a more serious, yet easy-to-use camera. When I mentioned it to my late friend, Ira, an artist and retired high school counselor, he offered to take me to B&H. That first trip to B&H introduced me not only to my camera, but also to the world of photography.

It was at B&H that I started to attend photography classes and met some of my first photography mentors. It was also at B&H that I became a member of the Infinity Photo Society. Not only that, but I ended up having work featured in a juried gallery at SoHo Photo Gallery in Manhattan.

Little by little, I advanced from an advanced point-and-shoot camera to a DSLR and, years later, to a mirrorless camera. (After the Panasonic, I switched to Nikon in 2008, and have been a Nikon shooter ever since)

A few years ago, I picked up my Panasonic again, wondered if it was still working. It was slow, yet work, and captured still pictures and videos.

This summer, I decided to sell and trade in some of my old gear, but I couldn’t quite part with my twenty-year-old camera. And then, about a month ago, someone younger asked me about cameras and photography. They wanted a point-and-shoot, easy-to-use camera.

I ended up offering my Panasonic FZ50 for a token price. I thought of it as a gesture of building an intergenerational photographic bridge of sorts. My twenty-year-old camera, now slower, can still fuel a new generation of photo enthusiasts with passion for photography, thus ensuring the ongoing art, science, and magic of image-making, painting with light.

As always, thanks for stopping by,

Alina Oswald