I'm a camera buff. It started way back in Junior High School when my Dad gave me his old Kodak 35mm camera - I can't remember the model but it was pretty neat even if it was old. I snapped lots of pictures and spent a lot of money getting the film developed. I took a basic photography class in High School, bought a new Nikon EM camera and spent time in the dark room developing my own pictures.
That's me with the Nikon EM!
It was always fun to see the images appear right in front of my eyes. Me and a group of girl friends would stay after school some days and develop pictures of each other and we had a lot of fun making copies for each other.
I took another basic photography class in college but it was a bit more formal with required themes but still a lot of fun.
As a tech geek I was delighted when digital photography arrived and I was on the bleeding edge of technology when I bought my first Casio digital camera. Now I could snap pictures like crazy without having to spend time in the dark room or spending a fortune having them developed. But the quality was very poor and the pictures were grainy, small in size with various other quality issues.
That's me and my Ex with the first Casio camera visible
Here is a family Christmas pic of me and the Ex with the first Casio digital.
Click to see the full size and notice the quality - or lack of quality. Still cool.
A few years later I bought another Casio 4mp
camera and the quality was MUCH improved. It is still my primary camera even though the display is so dim I can't see it in sunlight. I'll be using it for a while longer as I just can't afford to buy a new one yet. Click the sunflower pic to see the noticeable quality improvement.
Thankfully my cell phone has a great 6mp camera and now I use it for most of my digital picture moments. The quality is amazing for a cell phone and the pictures can be blown up very large if needed without ever noticing it is a digital picture.
Here is a picture taken of the lobby at my office taken with the cell phone.
With the computer came photo editing software which allowed me to actually improve a lot of those old photos I took with the Kodak 35mm camera and the first digital cameras. Suddenly all my old pictures were starting to look much better. But apparently progress doesn't always mean moving forward.
The currently technology trend is to take great digital pictures and make them look ............ well...... worse. Photo editing websites like BeFunky.com and cell phone apps like Instagram have tools and filters that make your high quality digital picture look old, grainy, weathered and time worn. This is progress?! I have to admit that I think a lot of the pictures I've seen are pretty cool and I'm even experimenting with it myself - in fact I really love the BeFunky.com site. But this retro fad is also getting on my nerves. It seems nobody can post a picture that looks like it was taken in 2012.
This is an Instagram picture taken with my cell phone only moments ago with a filter appropriately named for this article called "1977". That's nearly the same time frame as the first picture of this article.
I waited a long time to get quality digital photography - now the technology is being wasted. But all is not lost. In most cases the original picture still exists - the old looking one is usually just a copy. However those pictures people post on their Facebook timeline and other on-line sites will remain as the alleged originals for as long as the websites are available.
It seems somewhat bizarre that in the future we will be looking back at our old pictures of the last decade and can marvel at how much better they look than the instagram picture I took just now.
4/27/12 - Update
So here is a fun update. I usually use Google Picasa to edit photos - especially the old ones to correct the faults. So I took the Instragram photo above and applied the "I'm Feeling Lucky" filter like I normally would to "fix" the picture. Here are the results. Original (below left), Instagram (above), and Picasa "fixed" (below right)
5 comments:
I agree that making a brand new photo look old is not what I want these days. But as an amateur photographer (instead of a pro)I guess some people like to do that. I have an artist friend who makes some of her photos like that and coins it ART.
We had similar interests when we were younger. I started a nursing program but dropped that when I thought about all of the surgeries I'd have to attend - ewww. So I switched schools and majors and went into telecommunications instead. I wanted to be a tv producer/director, behind the camera, not in front of it. But had to drop out of that after 18 months when I didn't want to get more student loans. I had 1500 dollars in loan debt when I quit school. I thought that was HUGE. Isn't that just crazy? I should have finished. I could be in hollywood now. ha.
I think it's so sad that a college education costs so much now but even 30 yrs ago, it was way more than I could afford. The recession of 82/83 was horrible and I should have stayed in school since jobs were so scarce. Sound familiar?
If we only knew what we know now. Oh well, I went back to school and did finish in a management degree and graduated in 2005.
I believe you never stop learning and after years in the IT field, like we have been, our early education just confirms that learning never ends.
Lisa in Indy
I think I had $5000 in student loans when I graduated in '87. That was HUGE for me and I took the whole 10 years to pay it off. It would have been more but I worked the whole time too (and have the grades to prove it). Education these days is one of several "bubbles" that is about to burst. Seriously over priced and supported by loan programs that make it possible. Something's gotta give. I too believe that learning never stops - but I'm a big fan of on the job training - but not the Intern type. Everyone should get paid for the work they do - these Intern programs are a rip-off where corporations get great outside-the-box talent for free.
No kidding. I would never consider working for free, until now (that I'm married and he makes enough so that I don't have to). But not when I was young and supporting myself! I left home at 18 and only moved back home a couple of times after that for brief periods of time. So like you, I had to pay my way. Nobody helped me.
My first brand new Toyota was 5 grand back in 1987. I wanted something reliable so that no one had to pick me up from being stranded. I learned that lesson the hard way.
I'll never forget working with this guy (programmer) that between he and his wife had 100k in student loans! They were starting a family and they already had two mortgage size loans (house and school). That was about 12 yrs ago and I bet they are only half way through paying it off. Ouch.
The cost of college is out of this world. I was very very lucky that my schooling was a benefit from my employment so I only had to pay for some of the fees. Probably 2k tops. Those benefits are disappearing too.
This weekend, I checked the bank owned homes in my zip code - 238 !!! That's terrible. I think things are getting much better and hope the same for FL. Those tax breaks for the wealthy really did a number on us in the middle class not to mention all of those tax breaks for corporations that shipped our jobs overseas. Lucky us.
Cheers,
Lisa
That b&w photo is gorgeous but seriously, where did you get that topless photo of Carol Burnett?
LOL - the 80's were a cruel time for hair styles.
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