The Hidden Road to [unknown]: Canon AE-1 SLR

A while back, I was at my grandparents house and happened to just be perusing their an old bookshelf that happened to have a camera on it. I looked at it, and it seemed to still work, but it was old and I wasn't entirely sure how it worked. It was an old camera of my grandpa's that he no longer used, and decided to give it to me as a gift.

Turns out it was a real workhorse back in its day... a Canon AE-1. Really solid camera. I thought I knew a bit about cameras... but turns out I didn't really, and still learning a lot.

I got the chance to use my first roll of film in it when I went to Sequoia National Park. I happened to have a little bit of a mishap when unloading it as it was the first time I had ever completed a roll of film on an SLR. Some pictures turned out really well, but out of the 32 I shot, only about 10 turned out. Note to self: roll the film up BEFORE opening the back! (kinda obvious right?)

In the event someone runs across this camera and is in a similar predicament that I am, hopefully they won't overexpose their film as I did. I'm still working with the camera to get better at taking faster and better quality shots, but I'm a bit sluggish with the steps. Here is a very minimal step-by-step approach.

1) Load film and wind once

2) Set shutter speed according to how much light is around

3) Determine aperture (aka F-stop) setting based on light and shutter speed (I use the handy dandy light meter inside the viewfinder, but I presume if one is good with the camera, they know what the aperture should be)

4) Focus

5) Now focus the camera (<-- see what I did there?)

6) Shoot!

Here are some shots that did and didn't turn out well!