For you, Grandpa. — The Storey Fam

Too neat to keep to myself.

A year ago this month I visited my Grandma Brown. I wanted to see her before we moved overseas for my husband's job with the United States Air Force.

She's 95 years old.

My grandpa died three years ago this spring.

Last Flowers

Last vase, repaired

She mourns him each day, with grace and peace, knowing that she'll join him soon.

In the meantime she is a quiet but mighty prayer warrior for our family and for all she's known and not known.

When I arrived in my grandparent's home the smells and sights whisked me away back into my childhood filled with beautiful summer and Christmas memories. I stayed in their old room.

The way the room looked and smelled was a perfect match for my memory of it. Bright blue walls, old brass head board and black and white pictures of long gone relatives adorning the walls.

I took note of two old camera bags sitting on the high dresser, but waited a day to peak into them. I found them filled with old equipment. I recognized it. I stood to take it all in, closed my eyes and could see him. Tall, slender and weather worn.

With that old bright camera strap around his neck and that beautifully familiar gentle smile on his face.

Those two ancient film cameras, held once by his calloused, hard working farm hands.

Aunt Becky asked if I wanted them. I was giddy, though I had no clue what I'd do with them. I had only brought small bags with me, but I assured her I would fit them in somehow. And I did. I told Grandma I was taking them. She asked several times if I was sure I wanted to lug those old things around. Would I use them. Could I use them. I reassured her that I wanted them. They got packed up soon after I arrived home as we anticipated our move to Portugal. We unpacked them here. I looked at the bags and loaded them downstairs to be stashed with other storage items, still not sure what to do with them. Fast forward to February. I was hunting for a wider angle prime lens for my Canon 40D. (Camera people, here's some technical details for you. :) ) I had a 50mm 1.8, but it was simply too short an angle for indoor shots of my boys. Long story short, I started researching micro 4/3, or Mirrorless cameras. I had NO idea what I was looking at initially, but grew more excited every day with the possibility of switching from my big black brick of a Canon (which I loved) to a smaller, smarter camera. Having the capability to take wider angle shots of this incredible place we live in, as well as being able to take video of my precious 4 boys growing were the two drivers for me. After a few months of being more disciplined with saving than I've been in my entire life, I was nearing the point of purchase.

And then the price skyrocketed $400 past the amount I had been saving for and was still $150 from reaching. My heart sank. Being so close but not quite there was nearly maddening.

Weeks passed and the price came down, slowly, but no where near to where I had saved.

Mother's day came. A box was placed on my lap, a little speech about capturing life's moments with our boys was said by my husband, with a grin from ear to ear, and three smiling little boys. I opened it and proclaimed as I slammed the box lid back shut, "NO WAY!!!!"

Since then I've learned more about photography than I have learned in four + years of using the Canon. This isn't the Canon's fault, but my own. The Olympus has a fantastic menu (once arranged in a user friendly way), and the options that I recognized but didn't understand forced me to start really diving into camera language. I've got a long ways to go, but I just love it! In my research of the camera I had come across an adapter that a company makes to fit old film lenses to the new Micro 4/3 cameras. I pulled my grandpa's old bags out of storage and rummaged through them to find brands. Three Minolta's and a couple Pentax off brand lenses.

Three PRIME Minolta's. A 35mm f2.8, a 48mm f1.4 and a 135mm, f1.4

Here they are, minus the one I'm using to take this picture.

I hem hawed a while and paid the whopping $15 for the adapter for my grandpa's three Minolta lenses. The adapter arrived and I tossed it in a basket on our counter. It sat for two weeks. I wasn't finding time to sit down and dink with it.

Yesterday, I did. I held those lenses in my hands and put them to use after years of rest.

I called my sister on Face time who is in Minnesota visiting. She was sitting on my Grandma's couch talking with Grandma.

Perfect.Timing.

I looked at that beautiful aging face, from across the ocean, and told her that once again Grandpa's lenses were taking pictures. She could hardly believe it (or understand it! ha!) I explained to her how it was possible, on a new camera. She just shook her head and smiled.

I'm not sure how to describe what it does to my heart to be using my grandpa's old lenses. The quality of the images gives clear hints to the age of the lenses, but that's part of what I love so much about it. They are what he used. What he learned on. And now they are mine. My Olympus shows what will be captured. I work the focus and the aperture ring on the lenses, but everything else is workable through this new camera, using a $15 adapter and lenses that are nearly 50 years old. They are now taking pictures of his great grandsons that he was never able to meet.

Joel Raymond. His middle name was Grandpa's middle name, and also a long standing Brown family name. I was able to tell Grandpa on the phone before he died that he would have a great grandson that would bear his middle name. I missed his memorial service because I was 35 weeks pregnant with Joel.