Old School Photos - How to Pay for Cameras and Lenses

I paid for most of my early camera collection, taking aerial photos.  My father was a licensed pilot, who loved to fly, I loved taking photos, I discovered that people liked the images, and were willing to pay for them.  I photographed a couple of local towns, those I could print ahead and people would buy them.  I took special orders for photos of farms and homes.  I had a lot to learn about running a business, and pricing, but I profited enough to buy cameras and lenses.  

Most of these were taken at 1000 to 1500 feet of elevation.  A cloudless day was best. The light was too flat on a cloudy day.  

I started out in black and white, most likely TriX, or Ilford FP4.  I could go up to 11 by 14 with reasonable quality.  I rapidly moved onto color.  I have a notebook full of negatives, someday I will pull out the color negatives and scan them.  For several years I thought that I had tossed out the binder full of negatives from the 70's and 80's.  A couple of years ago, I found it, a very-very happy day.