In 1991, I purchased my first SLR. I was in the Navy and had come home on leave. I knew that I’d be traveling the world and I wanted to make sure that I’d be able to capture it all. I walked into Wal-Mart and walked out with a Canon EOS Rebel. It was an absolutely fabulous camera.

This camera literally traveled the world with me. I had both a 35-80 and a 75-300 and they made a great combination. They weren’t the greatest lenses ever made, but for a poor sailor with an incredibly low income at the time, they were fantastic. I also had a pretty extensive collection of Cokin filters. Everything you could image. I had graduated filters, starlight, neutral density, and more.

I built a nice collection of images from Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. I had the opportunity to take pictures in Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and many more exotic locations.

It was so cool to see with my own eyes places I’d only seen in books. In the last image in this set, wild camels are roaming the banks of the Suez Canal, for example.

I’m still in the process of scanning my old negatives. I’m really hoping to find some of them. I have some prints that I enlarged to 16×20 but I have yet to find the corresponding negatives. Some of my favorite images came from Venice and Rome. I really hope I can find both of those negative sets.

One of the coolest times was when my mom flew to meet me in France. The ship had pulled into Marseilles and I took two weeks of leave to spend with her in Paris over Christmas. We had the opportunity to visit the amazing palace in Versailles, went to the top of the Eiffel Tower, explored the gorgeous opera house, and so much more. It was a wonderful time. We’re not Catholic, but we went to Christmas Eve Mass at Notre Dame which was incredible. I hope to get back one day during the Spring to see the gardens in bloom.

I pulled the camera out of the bag with the hope of putting it to use again. The battery in the bag was only guaranteed until 2009 so I guessed it was probably past its time. Fortunately, Amazon came to the rescue and I had a fresh, new battery today. Unfortunately, it wasn’t meant to be. I put the new battery in but there was no sign of life. The display was just as empty as before. I guess after so many years of sitting idle, it decided it didn’t want to work anymore.

I’m bummed, but I guess it’s not unexpected. I was just really excited about the thought of putting my 30+ year old camera to use again. Lesson learned.