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Jan 10, 2019 13:02:13   #
lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA
 
Curmudgeon wrote:
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I woke up about 4AM a couple mornings ago with this simple thought running through my mind: The trouble with digital photography is there is no analog output.

No, stop, wait a minute! Before you go off on a rant, let me set the ground rules. This post is aimed a specific group: Over 65 years of age, grew up with parents, grandparents and if you were lucky great grandparents, owned a box camera of some kind and worked up from there, you took snapshots because that's what you did with a Brownie Hawkeye, your parents took snapshots with a Brownie Junior Six-20 or equivalent.

Now, it is holiday season 1954. The family gets together for a three generation dinner. After dinner everyone is in a mellow mood, a little wine, a drink or two for the adults and a sugar buzz for the kids. The oldsters start to tell stories about the good old days and suddenly grandma's eyes light up and she leaves the room. Two minutes later she's back with a stack of photo albums, grandpa is right behind with his arms full of shoe boxes, it's picture time. Ten minutes later there are pictures and photo albums scattered all over the room. The stories are more animated now, more wine. The kids who are still up start to learn what it was really like in the "Good old days".

Now we fast forward to 1963. Great grand parents are gone now and parents host the annual family dinner. Same scenario. Drinks, wine and dinner albums and shoe boxes come out again and we watch another generation grow up. This time though some of the pictures are Polaroid. Still everything is a snapshot.

Fast forward again 2018 we are the grand parents, maybe great grand parents. If we are lucky we still have the family dinner, we have too many drinks and too much wine. After dinner we sit around with our family and the topic drifts to the "Good old days". Suddenly my wife's eyes light up and she disappears down the hall and returns a few minutes later with a lap top computer and a stack of SD cards.

Probably just an old man's nostalgia but it doesn't seem to project the same warm feelings as passing pictures around and trying to remember where and when they were taken and telling stories about what the mean and not what they show.

That's what I mean about no analog output. There is something important being lost. To me, reading a book is preferable to reading a book on an electronic device. I hold a picture in my hand, the paper is stiff and crinkly, the picture is probably a little faded and brown but it is somehow more real than an image on a screen. The very fact of holding it makes the memory more real somehow. Again all of this could be the fantasy of a nostalgic old Curmudgeon, but...
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I... (show quote)


Hmmm. I'm right on the cusp there. I was born in August 1954 so I am still 64 years old. Growing up was not so warm and cuddly for me. Cuddly today are my two large hounds. I never met my Great grand parents and in fact only knew one Grand parent. Both my Parents were the youngest in their families. And unfortunately many of my relatives were obnoxious FMs. I will not indicate which here. It seems both sides of my family when growing up were relatively poor and it seems took few photos. I've seen very few prints of my parents generation of relatives. My parents moved from NY State to CA around 1950 so I grew up with few cousins or aunts and uncles around. As noted before, many I was better off not knowing better.

When I was born my parents had an Argus Seventy-five 6x6cm (620 film) TTL camera. Really basic. I still have the camera to this day. Once I was old enough I more or less became my immediate family's photographer. First with the Argus and latter with my own Kodak Instamatic 104 (126 format) camera. My parents used it too I found.

I too prefer paper books to reading screens. My wife (60) actually likes pod-casts and the like a lot. And reads "books" on her SmartPhone or Tab. I like collecting and listening to CDs, LPs, and CSs. Only use the PC for finding and compilating OOP music I can't otherwise find or "try" a new artist to see if I like it enough to buy. I like the physical items. Along with that I do print photographs I've taken that I really like. Viewing on the monitor is just an intermediate step to me.

But, yes, for the most part the "kids" today are happy with a virtual digital life. And of minimal Quality it seems. They probably have no idea what 12" woofers are. Let a lone a 4x5" camera!

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Jan 10, 2019 13:15:45   #
RV Loc: Chicago
 
I am going to be 69 soon. I have been a professional photographer for the last 20 years and now retired. I am a huge fan of the new digital photography technology and all the incredible benefits it offers. With that said I must agree 100% that the old pictures that were taken during the film days still offer me the most memories. When I look at the faded pics and feel the old crispy paper it brings back memories that I can never get looking at a computer screen and or smartphone. I remember the excitement of going to Walgreens to pick up the prints and seeing what I had waiting for me.

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Jan 10, 2019 13:17:00   #
speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho
 
Curmudgeon wrote:
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I woke up about 4AM a couple mornings ago with this simple thought running through my mind: The trouble with digital photography is there is no analog output.

No, stop, wait a minute! Before you go off on a rant, let me set the ground rules. This post is aimed a specific group: Over 65 years of age, grew up with parents, grandparents and if you were lucky great grandparents, owned a box camera of some kind and worked up from there, you took snapshots because that's what you did with a Brownie Hawkeye, your parents took snapshots with a Brownie Junior Six-20 or equivalent.

Now, it is holiday season 1954. The family gets together for a three generation dinner. After dinner everyone is in a mellow mood, a little wine, a drink or two for the adults and a sugar buzz for the kids. The oldsters start to tell stories about the good old days and suddenly grandma's eyes light up and she leaves the room. Two minutes later she's back with a stack of photo albums, grandpa is right behind with his arms full of shoe boxes, it's picture time. Ten minutes later there are pictures and photo albums scattered all over the room. The stories are more animated now, more wine. The kids who are still up start to learn what it was really like in the "Good old days".

Now we fast forward to 1963. Great grand parents are gone now and parents host the annual family dinner. Same scenario. Drinks, wine and dinner albums and shoe boxes come out again and we watch another generation grow up. This time though some of the pictures are Polaroid. Still everything is a snapshot.

Fast forward again 2018 we are the grand parents, maybe great grand parents. If we are lucky we still have the family dinner, we have too many drinks and too much wine. After dinner we sit around with our family and the topic drifts to the "Good old days". Suddenly my wife's eyes light up and she disappears down the hall and returns a few minutes later with a lap top computer and a stack of SD cards.

Probably just an old man's nostalgia but it doesn't seem to project the same warm feelings as passing pictures around and trying to remember where and when they were taken and telling stories about what the mean and not what they show.

That's what I mean about no analog output. There is something important being lost. To me, reading a book is preferable to reading a book on an electronic device. I hold a picture in my hand, the paper is stiff and crinkly, the picture is probably a little faded and brown but it is somehow more real than an image on a screen. The very fact of holding it makes the memory more real somehow. Again all of this could be the fantasy of a nostalgic old Curmudgeon, but...
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I... (show quote)

Its still the same, I take pictures, so I can print them, did that in the 60's and doing it now, so in that regard, nothing has changed! Actually I have way more analog feedback now than I did back then!

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Jan 10, 2019 13:31:17   #
FunkyL Loc: MD
 
That's why I still make a hardcopy photo album. Now the album is full of prints of photo collages of digital photos, with digital text added in place of handwriting, but I still sit down to share it with family and friends, including my very tech savvy grandniece, who seems to really enjoy it. It also forces me to tell the story in only a page or two; film was expensive and those old albums didn't have 157 snapshots of the family vacation. If they like it, and want more, then we get out the laptop with all the photos.

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Jan 10, 2019 13:38:51   #
berchman Loc: South Central PA
 
I'm of the so-called silent generation although I'm hardly silent. I welcome all the new technology. I have no sentimental feelings for 12" black and white TV's, dial phones, crappy sound coming from old radios before high fidelity stereo speakers, vinyl records that had to carefully cleaned of dust before every playing, cars with no safety features (but I do miss the aesthetics of the classic cars), no microwave ovens, no computers, no internet. Also, my only family is my wife, so I don't have to endure boring gatherings with people I have nothing in common with to go over old snapshots.

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Jan 10, 2019 13:46:17   #
Bubbee Loc: Aventura, Florida
 
How sad, Berchman..
To each his own...

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Jan 10, 2019 13:58:37   #
Siemienczuk
 
This is a great thread. I was born in 1952. When I look at B&W prints from my childhood, I remember standing for what seemed like an eternity while my dad took light meter readings and then finally had us pose and took the shot. They are awesome. He shot medium format, having done some war photography while in the Navy in the South Pacific.

Later, at every holiday the extended family would get together (called a Gathering) and the climax of the evening was 90 minutes plus of viewing slides (called a Showing).

The millennials are not a total lost cause. My son and his wife routinely go on shoots with me, my son using an aging T2i that I bought for him quite some time back, his wife using a T5i that he purchased for her.

I find that I can't NOT print images that I really like...

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Jan 10, 2019 14:15:56   #
jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania
 
Curmudgeon wrote:
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I woke up about 4AM a couple mornings ago with this simple thought running through my mind: The trouble with digital photography is there is no analog output.

No, stop, wait a minute! Before you go off on a rant, let me set the ground rules. This post is aimed a specific group: Over 65 years of age, grew up with parents, grandparents and if you were lucky great grandparents, owned a box camera of some kind and worked up from there, you took snapshots because that's what you did with a Brownie Hawkeye, your parents took snapshots with a Brownie Junior Six-20 or equivalent.

Now, it is holiday season 1954. The family gets together for a three generation dinner. After dinner everyone is in a mellow mood, a little wine, a drink or two for the adults and a sugar buzz for the kids. The oldsters start to tell stories about the good old days and suddenly grandma's eyes light up and she leaves the room. Two minutes later she's back with a stack of photo albums, grandpa is right behind with his arms full of shoe boxes, it's picture time. Ten minutes later there are pictures and photo albums scattered all over the room. The stories are more animated now, more wine. The kids who are still up start to learn what it was really like in the "Good old days".

Now we fast forward to 1963. Great grand parents are gone now and parents host the annual family dinner. Same scenario. Drinks, wine and dinner albums and shoe boxes come out again and we watch another generation grow up. This time though some of the pictures are Polaroid. Still everything is a snapshot.

Fast forward again 2018 we are the grand parents, maybe great grand parents. If we are lucky we still have the family dinner, we have too many drinks and too much wine. After dinner we sit around with our family and the topic drifts to the "Good old days". Suddenly my wife's eyes light up and she disappears down the hall and returns a few minutes later with a lap top computer and a stack of SD cards.

Probably just an old man's nostalgia but it doesn't seem to project the same warm feelings as passing pictures around and trying to remember where and when they were taken and telling stories about what the mean and not what they show.

That's what I mean about no analog output. There is something important being lost. To me, reading a book is preferable to reading a book on an electronic device. I hold a picture in my hand, the paper is stiff and crinkly, the picture is probably a little faded and brown but it is somehow more real than an image on a screen. The very fact of holding it makes the memory more real somehow. Again all of this could be the fantasy of a nostalgic old Curmudgeon, but...
Being old and not sleeping as well as I used to, I... (show quote)


------------------

I'm 69 and I remember pretty much the same type family get-togethers and the albums and shoe boxes full of pictures too. That was a wonderful time and it really doesn't seem the same now. I also remember in the 1960's we also broke out the old 8mm home movies too along with all the pictures. My kids still got a taste of the way it used to be because I had lots of albums my wife and I made up along with my parents and my grandparents that were still alive when my kids were young. My kids took some pictures with film cameras but then as they got older they started taking mostly cell phone pictures now, that seldom if ever get printed. It is my grandchildren that start to miss out.

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Jan 10, 2019 14:59:57   #
syscosteve
 
I guess i am fortunate. My two kids, now grown up with families of their own, are very interested in our family history and all the family images my brothers and I have digitized. 3 - 4 generations worth. Although my very young grandchildren arent interested yet, hopefully they will be when they are our age. We werent really thinking aut these things until we were in our late 40's early 50's. About this time the family elders were starting to die off and the younger generation started to feel their mortality.

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Jan 10, 2019 16:20:19   #
BillO Loc: Eastern Shore Maryland
 
I agree, very sad...
While there is no doubt that technology has improved some aspects of life, as a sailor and boat builder, wooden boats ( I have 3) are far superior to fiberglass (tupperware) boats, sail is better than a motor, and I long for my old 1959 Plymouth Savoy with the flat head six and big fins. Sold the car in 71 , married and kept the girl for 45 years (or maybe she kept me)!
There is alot to be said for modern things except they lack soul.
Oh well... another curmudgeon here.
The photos are from summer 1971 before I enlisted in the Navy.
I'm endulging myself again


(Download)


(Download)

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Jan 10, 2019 16:36:45   #
burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC
 
User ID wrote:
This is a curmudgeonly thread. Therefor any
simple and obvious solution is unwelcome.

.



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Jan 10, 2019 17:43:30   #
KTJohnson Loc: Northern Michigan
 
Great thread! Brings back a lot of memories.

We used to gather at my grandparent's every few years. My grandfather had a stereographic/3D camera and had hundreds of those 3D discs that we used to watch while wearing the glasses to see them correctly. We saw trips to Norway and trips out west along with family photos. Then my uncles & my dad would show slides. Good times.

I believe the photo below is from 1958.



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Jan 10, 2019 17:58:16   #
Shutterbug57
 
My dad died in 2012. I have boxes of slides and albums of prints but I have ZERO of his digital images.

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Jan 10, 2019 18:13:21   #
Curmudgeon Loc: SE Arizona
 
burkphoto wrote:
img src="https://static.uglyhedgehog.com/images/s... (show quote)


Not quite sure what that means

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Jan 10, 2019 19:56:10   #
AJFRED Loc: Alabama
 
I’m with you on this take, but for one small detail. I have a living relative who still does fine art photography. Given, he is in his mid 80’s, but he is still trucking on. 😬

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