what a wonderful trip down memory lane. I remember those early cameras, too. I took a summer intensive at Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula when I first moved to Montana in the 90's. loved working in the dark room, even built one in our house in Lakeside - never developed a damn thing in it. when we sold the house I tried to sell the never used developer - by that time all was digital. ended up donating to the college. hope some romantic for old school photography has gotten some use from it.
Thank you, tabby. I actually enjoyed digital, and I looked back at film through a rose colored lens. Digital helps me to get what I see a little more easily but I hate pitting one against the other.
Really nice piece. Got me thinking about my dad and how he got me interested in photography even though I went in the musician direction. I always think that if he didn't have to work a regular job, he would have been a photographer. I have all of his old cameras now including the little Olympus 35 RC he always let me borrow in college when I would go on my outdoors trips. Such a nice little camera. I remember him trying to explain the exposure triangle to me but I was usually too hasty and fucked things up. But I did get a few shots from time to time. After my trips, we'd always sit down and look at all my prints together and he would tell me what he thought were the best ones and why.
He bought a cool Voigtlander Prominent in Germany when he was stationed there in the late 50s with the US Army. I have all of those photos now-several slides as well. Looking through them as a little kid formulated a lot of the things I thought about my dad and who he was as a person. Photography is starting to eclipse music for me these days. Who knows. The last time I shot film was probably 2000. Shooting Fuji these days.
Thanks, Andrew. I still like film, but the expense puts me off. I also shot more than my share of it, so I'm not feeling like I'm missing out on anything. I'm happy to see the renewed interest in film. It's a different kind of shooting and it can complement digital in many ways. I like Fuji and have dabbled a few times in the modern Fuji APS-C bodies, but always sell them and revert to just one system for simplicity's sake.
This whole thing reminds me of the rekindled love for tape in the recording industry. A sort of inconvenience as fetish” trend. Tape certainly has a specific sound. Better? I don’t know. Just different. But I sure wouldn’t want to give up the flexibility and creativity that digital audio affords. And talk about affordability. Tape is prohibitively expensive.
exactly. the people who fetishize analog seem to have never experienced the extreme joy of suddenly being able to edit audio, video or still images digitally, versus the old methods.
They’re digital natives-that convenience has always been there for them. It wasn’t a revelation. I’m a Gen-Xer so all that stuff happened as I was growing up. Like one of those time lapse mushroom videos.
Yeah, I'm tail-end of the boom, but overlap in a lot of areas with Gen-X, so that's where I also stand. Cassettes were a big deal when I was a little kid, but that first iPod? wow. Photoshop? wow. Final Cut Pro? wow. Digital audio workstations? yep...
I got my first real camera when I was about 13. That would be 1963. It was a 35 mm. In my early years as a journalist, I often developed my own film. At one point I had a dark room set up in my apartment bathroom, with a piece of plywood over the tub.
One thing I do appreciate about digital photography, at least on my iPhone, is that the camera records the time and place. I have a lot of slides that I am uncertain of where and when they were shot.
Your photos are lovely and evocative.
Did you ever use Fuji Velvia? My daughter shot some amazing photos with it. Its color is almost cartoonish, very saturated.
Thanks, Fran! The time and date thing - I never used it, but do you remember the old film point and shoots that would burn a time and date onto the shot? Forever, on the negative. That was like a 90s thing. And I loved Velvia. Used to shoot Velvia 50 and 200, but the 50 was amazingly saturated and I loved that.
One of my favorites, Paul. This memoir through the literal lens of a camera is stunning. Those ice cube shaped, rotating camera flashes! Brought me back to Papa & Gramma's home in Brooklyn ~ Polaroid photos were the order of the day & I cherish every awkward image. I loved my treks to FotoMat in Bayside, two blocks from home, where I dropped off my film & reclaimed it gleefully a week later. Today's cameras are infinitely easier & more viable, no use denying it. But I remember the palpable excitement of seeing my childhood images. Thank you thank you thank you.
Gerlach: Those gizmos frame left appear to be actual phone booths or extraterrestrial worm hole transports. Either way: To hell with cell phones!
what a wonderful trip down memory lane. I remember those early cameras, too. I took a summer intensive at Rocky Mountain School of Photography in Missoula when I first moved to Montana in the 90's. loved working in the dark room, even built one in our house in Lakeside - never developed a damn thing in it. when we sold the house I tried to sell the never used developer - by that time all was digital. ended up donating to the college. hope some romantic for old school photography has gotten some use from it.
Thank you, tabby. I actually enjoyed digital, and I looked back at film through a rose colored lens. Digital helps me to get what I see a little more easily but I hate pitting one against the other.
Really nice piece. Got me thinking about my dad and how he got me interested in photography even though I went in the musician direction. I always think that if he didn't have to work a regular job, he would have been a photographer. I have all of his old cameras now including the little Olympus 35 RC he always let me borrow in college when I would go on my outdoors trips. Such a nice little camera. I remember him trying to explain the exposure triangle to me but I was usually too hasty and fucked things up. But I did get a few shots from time to time. After my trips, we'd always sit down and look at all my prints together and he would tell me what he thought were the best ones and why.
He bought a cool Voigtlander Prominent in Germany when he was stationed there in the late 50s with the US Army. I have all of those photos now-several slides as well. Looking through them as a little kid formulated a lot of the things I thought about my dad and who he was as a person. Photography is starting to eclipse music for me these days. Who knows. The last time I shot film was probably 2000. Shooting Fuji these days.
Thanks, Andrew. I still like film, but the expense puts me off. I also shot more than my share of it, so I'm not feeling like I'm missing out on anything. I'm happy to see the renewed interest in film. It's a different kind of shooting and it can complement digital in many ways. I like Fuji and have dabbled a few times in the modern Fuji APS-C bodies, but always sell them and revert to just one system for simplicity's sake.
This whole thing reminds me of the rekindled love for tape in the recording industry. A sort of inconvenience as fetish” trend. Tape certainly has a specific sound. Better? I don’t know. Just different. But I sure wouldn’t want to give up the flexibility and creativity that digital audio affords. And talk about affordability. Tape is prohibitively expensive.
exactly. the people who fetishize analog seem to have never experienced the extreme joy of suddenly being able to edit audio, video or still images digitally, versus the old methods.
They’re digital natives-that convenience has always been there for them. It wasn’t a revelation. I’m a Gen-Xer so all that stuff happened as I was growing up. Like one of those time lapse mushroom videos.
Yeah, I'm tail-end of the boom, but overlap in a lot of areas with Gen-X, so that's where I also stand. Cassettes were a big deal when I was a little kid, but that first iPod? wow. Photoshop? wow. Final Cut Pro? wow. Digital audio workstations? yep...
Cassettes are all the rage with young bands now. It's so cute.
I got my first real camera when I was about 13. That would be 1963. It was a 35 mm. In my early years as a journalist, I often developed my own film. At one point I had a dark room set up in my apartment bathroom, with a piece of plywood over the tub.
One thing I do appreciate about digital photography, at least on my iPhone, is that the camera records the time and place. I have a lot of slides that I am uncertain of where and when they were shot.
Your photos are lovely and evocative.
Did you ever use Fuji Velvia? My daughter shot some amazing photos with it. Its color is almost cartoonish, very saturated.
Thanks, Fran! The time and date thing - I never used it, but do you remember the old film point and shoots that would burn a time and date onto the shot? Forever, on the negative. That was like a 90s thing. And I loved Velvia. Used to shoot Velvia 50 and 200, but the 50 was amazingly saturated and I loved that.
Yes, Lyza used 50. Saturated.
One of my favorites, Paul. This memoir through the literal lens of a camera is stunning. Those ice cube shaped, rotating camera flashes! Brought me back to Papa & Gramma's home in Brooklyn ~ Polaroid photos were the order of the day & I cherish every awkward image. I loved my treks to FotoMat in Bayside, two blocks from home, where I dropped off my film & reclaimed it gleefully a week later. Today's cameras are infinitely easier & more viable, no use denying it. But I remember the palpable excitement of seeing my childhood images. Thank you thank you thank you.
As always, thank you so much, Ellen!