I was going through my photography archives last night and came across something that really caught my attention. I hadn’t looked in that particular folder on my hard drive in quite a while but when I did it immediately brought back a lot of memories. What that folder held was the 1st digital image I had ever taken. Within a few seconds I was able to recall all the research I did before purchasing the camera that took the picture. I also remember the excitement I felt when the camera arrived…

It was a fairly warm Spring day in the suburbs of Chicago,  April 19, 2001 when UPS dropped off the box. Inside that box was an Olympus D-460 1.3megapixel digital camera. I had ordered it from Ubid, an early (but still kicking) competitor to eBay. They specialized in manufacturer closeouts so I had to watch the site for a while before the camera became available. I paid a grand total of $271.88 for the camera. I also spent $64.99 at Newegg for a 32mb smartmedia card and reader.

As soon as I signed for the box I quickly opened it up, grabbed a couple of AA batteries, put the memory card in the camera and opened the lens cover. “Whew, it works..” I said to myself. I then pointed the camera at the first living thing I could find in the house and took this picture:

Oscar the cat served as the victim of my first digital image

The (un)lucky first victim of my new digital camera was Oscar, one of our two cats. He was right at 2 years old in this picture. As you can see, he didn’t appreciate the flash.

(to see the EXIF info of Oscar’s picture just put your mouse over the image)

I was in the commercial/industrial real estate business at that point in my life so the camera’s main use was going to be taking pictures of the buildings I was listing or marketing. Well, it did get used for that but it also became the latest in a long line of “geek toys” (as my wife likes to call all the technology stuff I’ve purchased over the years). I was having a ton of fun shooting pictures, transferring them to the computer and then instantly seeing the image. Overall, I was impressed with the quality of the photos, especially on full automatic mode. The camera had a 3x optical zoom and a decent flash. It worked great for taking pictures of the buildings for my work as well as snapshots around the house or while out with friends.

So, it was this image that started me down the digital photography path. It took me almost 10 years after this picture was taken to really appreciate the enjoyment that I get out of using a camera. Oscar the cat, and his partner in crime Felix, are still with us so I guess i should give them some extra kitty treats to thank them for helping me to remember how I got started in the world of digital photography.

What was the first digital photo you took and what camera did you use to take it with? Tell us all about it in the comments and include a link to the photo if you want. I’m looking forward to seeing some of them!

BTW, if you’re interested, Amazon is still showing a few of these for sale. They’re used but I may just pick one up to relive a little bit of my digital photography past!

Olympus D-460 1.3MP Digital Camera w/ 3x Optical Zoom.