I'm not sure exactly when my love of photography began. I do remember learning the basics on my father's old Kodak Retina 1a. He bought it when he was in the U.S. Army and stationed in Europe in the 1950s. That camera would be a little bit too new to have captured the incredible images in this collection of World War II photographs published online recently by The Atlantic.

One of the most amazing things about this collection of photos is that it's in color. Remember, these images were captured during the early 1940s! Color photography was in its infancy back then and digital photography hadn't even been dreamed of!

The other thing that jumps out at me as I scroll through the images and descriptions is how all encompassing the war effort was in the United States. Women were working alongside - or in place of - men for the first time in many fields and every scrap of aluminum and other materials were collected for recycling. Not because of a huge push to be "Green", but because the materials were needed for weapons and machinery.

Even though almost no one uses color film any more I still have my film camera, an old Minolta X-700. It's really not valuable to anyone but me so it's been relegated to knick-knack duty.

Maybe someday I'll look back at my Nikon the way I look back at my Minolta today.

Dave D.

More From 102.3 The Bull