Last Updated on 10/21/2019 by Mark Beckenbach
Vintage cameras are witnesses to generations of touching and life-changing events, such as the beautiful story behind this Pentax Spotmatic.
When you’re buying and shooting with vintage cameras, you’re also owning and using something with decades worth of fascinating history. If you’re lucky, you might come across cameras used by famous photographers, limited edition models, and even those used for NASA spaceflights. You’d be even luckier if you have the money to afford them. Or instead, you may simply find one with a really heartwarming personal history, like this Pentax Spotmatic that Brisbane-based Daimon Wright found.
In his story, Wright recalls buying this Pentax Spotmatic a couple of weeks ago from a “pretty young guy” who was selling a bunch of cameras for a very low price. As you’d probably expect, he jumped at. The seller told him that he used the camera while traveling and also to propose to his now-wife.
“I can only imagine he would’ve written this in long before then asked her to have a go at taking a picture of him. She probably would have looked through the viewfinder to frame the shot then seen “marry me” with him standing (or kneeling) in the frame. Anyways, I bought it a couple weeks ago and didn’t have the heart to erase the writing.”
Recently, the seller messaged Wright, asking to buy the camera back. Not only that, but the seller also asked if Wright would be able to unjam the mirror and shutter as well. Wright explains, “He offered to buy it back for way too much initially but eventually agreed on a price. These old Pentax’s are easy to fix mechanically in my opinion and I know my way around the insides quite well now.”
So, Wright set to work to clean and fix the camera. Aside from getting the shutter running smoothly, he included new seals and stuck down the leatherette peeling on the front of the body. “He did ask me to erase the writing, but to my knowledge, he’s going to write it back in much neater. All in all, a very feel-good experience that I wanted to share.”
Of course, because we’d all be curious about how the actual proposal looked like from the camera’s viewfinder, Wright made sure to include a snap of that.
It seems that the anonymous young man may have found inspiration in a similar proposal by Jerrit Pruyn a few years back. The NYC wedding and portrait photographer documented it in a blog post, which was picked up by websites like Huffington Post and Gizmodo.
A really clever way to pop the question, don’t you think? It’s also great that the couples gets to keep the camera as a memento of that special day.
Photos used with permission from Daimon Wright