From a BBC news item Today, the idea of taking a photograph and never seeing the result is hard to comprehend, as we shoot away with our digital cameras or smartphones, instantly sharing photos we take. But wind the clock back to the time when photography was an analogue process, and the delay between taking the picture and seeing the prints could be many months, even years - long enough to forget. And for one roll of film, at least, the wait has been about 70 years. Camera collector William Fagan obtained a number of film cassettes some years ago, when he bought a Leica IIIa. And though he knew one contained film, he only recently set out to develop it. A 70-year-old photographic mystery
Oh yes, remember those times on special holidays, taking multiple shots of the same scene, each with a different f stop just to make sure you got one at the right exposure, and what about when you opened the camera back to find you didn't engage the film sprocket correctly and it didn't wind on anyway!!! (Apologies to all our young members who are wondering what I am talking about).
Yup, 1st wedding anniversary trip to Canada in 96. Wife's point & shoot camera counter clicked over but film didn't wind on so we have lots of memories that have no photographic record . Thankfully I still had my trusty Olympus OM10 SLR that worked .
I wonder when the curse of editing came into being. I say curse because of things like this: Le Beny Bocage, 1 Aug 1944. Sgt John Sear, having despatched a German tank on the village square, receives the thanks of the grateful residents (Trooper Fred Sedgley can also just be seen raising his beret). My Dad, trooper Frank Grimshaw, was on the extreme right of the original photo. Alas, he has been cropped from history.
I prefer a film camera, only reason I've got a digital one is because my old Pentax P30 eventually stopped working. I took some wonderfully clear as you can get photographs with it,which sadly don't look too clear when I have posted them on any forums.
Blimey, yes, more than once. I should have realised as the pull always seemed heavier when you actually were winding the film on, but oddly, when I didn’t feel that telltale bit of resistance, I still just kept thinking everything was fine as I wound and clicked away pointlessly.
Excellent stories you all have.Thank you Brownie one of the below school trips to a foreign field a few films used up returned home and found the camera lens had fallen out and all film overexposed.Oh well.Thank goodness for digital. Film cameras possibly would use a few films maybe 72 photos when your out .Then pay a few bob for developing.hit and miss Digital I now take (not that you would guess) hundreds each trip. A lazy way but a good way Further to harkness point crikey we have seen a number of those.Very sad Then the old photos in the family album without names on the back. Who are they we will never know.
Here's the old Kodak Park in Rochester, NY on Lake Ontario. I went to college near here and the closing price of Kodak stock was always the first thing on the local TV evening news. 50,000 employees at it's peak. All gone now. Kodak Park - Rochester Wiki
I have plenty of them in various handed down albums, such a shame, mind it may be better than having 100s of them on a computer that nobody else can access. The old Brownie 127, yep, that was my first camera, little red window in the back to count the frames, anyway Clive, with all the photos you post glad that yours is still going strong.
One my worst blunders was, after just buying my Brand New Pentax P30 in 1986, I was down in Devon and decided to take some photographs of a memorial. It was about a 500 yard walk across a field, each way. Off I went, took quite a few pics, got back to the van, then noticed through the small window on the back cover that there wasn't a film inside. So, following week while on my rounds I had to do it all over again. Duh !
I spent most of my life living within 15 miles of Kodak. My neighbors and friends worked there and I was a minor Kodak supplier to both film and digital divisions so I saw the disfunction. Sad what has happened. My next door neighbor made out ok. Kodak gave him an extra $100k to stay long enough to literally turn out the lights in the warehouse. Long sad story short, the film division was allowed to kill Kodak. What will be missed by my grand kids are the memories that wont be reinforced and remembered by going through the family album like I could. Wearing dad's garrison cap. That day my cousin took me to the movies. I spilled my canteen on my shorts and we left the show.
No ones mentioned the accumulated boxes of slides taken when colour first became affordable. And what about flash guns and bulbs. And did anyone experiment, as I did as a teenager, with doing their own developing usually with disastrous results - at best I seemed to end up with some sepia coloured photos reminiscent of the 19th Century. Tim
On my shopping list - I had one but it broke. Going further back there were glass slides. Rummaging through family possessions I came across a box of them and with some difficulty managed to get them printed. Here's one from the series: Henley Squadron of the Queen's Own Oxfordshire Hussars leaving Henley in 1914. Previously commanded by Winston Churchill, who was now too busy as First Lord of the Admiralty. He had them attached to the Naval Brigade, thus ensuring they were the first Territorial Force into action.
The annual bonuses were great for Rochester's car dealers and other businesses. All the people I knew who worked there said they were a really good employer.
Aha same as the nw London kodak they thought it was a job for life a good few thousand worked there. It was a village theatre,museum and sports ground. All thats left is the 1896 chimney stack which is listed and a station Z bunker which is also listed but just a hole in the ground now sealed. I think kodak missed the digital boat