Tom Poppendieck showing a camera to a customer, Dark Room, 1964

In 1964 Tom started working at the Dark Room, a neighborhood camera store. This job taught him a lot about photography and provided access to excellent cameras.

Cameras at the time required manual adjustments to both focus and exposure, so it took a lot of skill to set up a camera, frame a scene, get the right lighting and focus, hold the camera motionless and capture a picture-perfect moment .

To keep costs down, Tom learned how to develop film and print his own pictures. This made it possible for him to improve his skill by taking a lot of photographs. He had a good eye for interesting moments and captured some great shots.

Boys Tech Faculty Picnic, Milwaukee, 1964

Sue Poppendieck, Theodore Roosevelt National Park, 1964

Ruth Poppendieck, Thanksgiving, 1964

Circus Parade, Milwaukee, July, 1965

Ducks on a canoe trip, 1966

Elmer and Ruth Poppendieck (Tom's parents) sewing a tent, 1966

Andrew and Fritzi Anderson (Tom's grandparents), 1966

Photographing Bubbles

Tom used photography in his senior science fair project, taking pictures of bubbles rising in various liquid viscosities. His project won first place in the science fair; part of his prize was a full tuition scholarship to Marquette University.

Equipment for Tom's Science Fair Project, 1964

Newspaper Photographer

Tom took his camera to college and became a photographer for the Marquette University newspaper, which gave him hundreds of additional hours of practice taking photographs and developing film. After an event he had about a day to deliver contact prints of each roll of film to the editors so they could select which photos to publish.

In addition to many interesting assignments, Tom liked to wander around and take pictures of nearby construction projects and the urban neighborhood surrounding the university. He learned to combine framing, timing, focus and light into some great photographs.