My, How Things Have Changed!

I remember getting my first camera as if it were yesterday.  I was probably about seven or eight and I was living in Connecticut.  We were heading up to New Hampshire for a vacation and I had picked out a snazzy Kodak Instamatic.  It took real rolls of film and had little four-use flash cubes that clipped on the top that made a quick pop and a strange smell when they went off.

This was the exact camera I had, right down to the blue label.

I loved that camera and went through multiple rolls of film on that trip alone.  I distinctly remember mailing the rolls of film off to some distant company and then checking the mail every day anxiously waiting for the thick envelope of snapshots to arrive.  I picked the four or five decent shots off of the roll of twenty-four and put them in my photo album to admire and show off.


While I no longer have the camera, I do still have the photos I took.  They are yellowed and faded and have some scars as a result of being stuck in a glue-filled album with plastic sheets over them.

I have to marvel at how much photography has changed in the years between my first Instamatic and my digital Canon Rebel.  No more rolls of film to load, no more wondering if you got the shot - you have instant feedback via the LCD panel showing your picture, no waiting to get the film developed, and no more sticky backed photo albums.  Many times, I don't even print out my pictures, I share them digitally via email or our digital picture frame.  They are backed up safely in several locations and if I want to show them off, I create fabulous photo books on acid free paper that won't fade over time.

I sound like one of those old ladies talking about the "good old days", but in this case it's really not all that long ago.  I try to imagine telling my seven year old self that one day we'd be able to take pictures on phones we carry in our pockets (no - it doesn't have to be wired to the wall!) and send them through the air on this magic thing called the internet.  Then I try to imagine what wild thing my now 7 year old will be able to do when he is my age!