Film and Flash Bulbs

F is for Film and Flashbulbs.

This morning I was looking through my computer, flash drives, and SD cards for some photos.  We don't think twice about snapping a picture multiple times.  You know, just in case the smile wasn't quite right the first time.  Until the advent of the digital age, we didn't have that luxury.  Not only did you have the cost of developing (it's not like you could look at the images and choose which to have developed), but there was the cost of the film itself and of the flashbulbs.  All of these costs added up to careful consideration of what and who to capture on film.  When mom was on the downward spiral with Alzheimer's, we found that the many boxes of photos and photo albums bothered her more than about anything else in the house.  She would look at them and lament just how much money had been spent over the years on those photos.  Thank you mom and dad for valuing capturing the memories when you did - dash the costs!

My dad was a camera buff.  We owe it to him that we have so many images of mom and dad's family and our childhood.  We would troop outside on Easter morning, proms, birthdays, and other events,  for family pictures.  We have many pictures of us with our cousins, again usually outside.  Dad's camera did have a flash attachment, but the best shots were always taken outdoors.

Easter 1963 - Tony, Deanna, Tom, Kathleen

I remember when Kodak came out with the instant camera.  It was a marvel.  So easy to use.  

Make that kind of easy to use.  The roll of film had to be placed just right on one side of the camera, and then the film stretch across the lens to the other side to be secured just so in the little cogs on the other side.  Then the camera was closed and a knob turned until the beginning of the roll was reached.  It was not an exact science.  I can recall many times taking precious pictures and then at the end of the day opening the back of the camera and realize I had not gotten the grooves and cogs lined up correctly.  Disaster!

How many of you can remember the blinding flash of the flash bulb?  Worse than that was the smell.  Events like family reunions, birthdays and weddings were enough to make you want to leave the room.  The smell of sulfur (at least that's what I think it was) was overpowering.

This is one good ol' day I would never want to return to.  But I'm so glad for the people like dad who loved taking pictures back then as much as I do today.  Give me digital all the way baby!