The Last Roll of Film
October 29, 2012Something’s not quite right with the color of the
photographs, and several are completely unrecognizable. The color problem
probably stems from keeping the film on my dresser for several years before
having it developed, but what’s up with the unrecognizable ones?
I just had my last roll of film developed, and it made me
kind of sad. I entered the digital photo age kicking and screaming. I loved my
35mm camera, loved the packets of shiny photos I had developed, loved the photo
albums and scrapbooks I made with them. I feared my digital photos would never
make it off my hard drive into prints. (I was mostly right about that, too. I
don’t know which is worse: boxes of unsorted prints or computer files of
unsorted images!)
I’m totally a digital convert now—I love the ability to take
tons of photos and, even better, the simple software that allows me to crop and
otherwise enhance them so I have images I think are beautiful. I’m looking into
websites that allow you to make photo books to replace the scrapbooks and photo
albums I used to make. The excitement of sending my film away and seeing if the
photos I took are as good as I think they will be has been replaced by
immediately checking the images, then popping a memory card into my laptop. Now
that I’m converted to digital, I’m going to sell my 35mm SLR
camera. It makes me a little sad, but I don’t need it or use it anymore.
So what was on that roll of film? Before-and-after photos of
our kitchen when we changed the countertops from Formica to granite and added a
new backsplash. (We made this home improvement right before Christmas—that’s
when we do all our home improvements. It adds that perfect touch of panic to the festivities.) My
husband and I were thinner. Nick was shorter. And Crusher was still with us.
(Sniffle.)
 |
| Look how young Nick is! |
Sometimes technology makes life better—it certainly has made
photography more fun and easier for me, even though I still have a lot more to
learn. My husband says I’ll soon exchange my paper books for an e-reader, but
I’m not so sure about that. There’s more to reading a book than seeing words on
a page.
How has technology made your life better? Is there anything
you said you’d never do/try/use that you now find indispensable, like my
digital camera?
2 comments
Love the picture of Nick - didn't he just turn 18 recently? We sold our film SLR awhile back - I think when we bought a new lens for our digital SLR.
ReplyDeleteI've learned not to say never when it comes to trying/buying new technology. Something that seems ridiculous at one time becomes indispensable very quickly - like cell phones for most people.
Sounds like you might like doing your scrapbooking digitally - that's how I do it these days (when I get around to it that is). Email me if you want to know more about it and I'd be happy to share some websites.
Cheryl--Yes, he did just turn 18! He's a lot younger here. I'd have to go look up my records to see when we redid the kitchen to know how long ago these were.
ReplyDeleteYou notice didn't say never about the e-reader. I'm not against them and have a couple books loaded on my husband's Kindle. I'm just not sure they'll ever totally replace "real" books in my heart.
Thanks for the offer of digital scrapbooking help--I will definitely take you up on it!