Days Before Digital

La Familia
Originally uploaded by Tokyorosa

Remember the days before digital cameras, when you'd have 16 or 24 or 36 exposures and if you screwed one up, you didn't find out until after you had gone through the trouble of having them developed? Those were the days. (I remember a few years ago, tossing out more than twenty-five rolls of exposed, undeveloped film because I just didn't want to deal with it.)

This is one of those gem photos from, oh, maybe 1975. It was probably taken with my mother's little 110 camera, the one that had the spinning flashbulb. (Oh, yes, remember the disposable flashbulbs?) That's me, my younger brother and my older brother, sitting on the gravel covered dirt in the backyard, shading our eyes against the sun. (My younger brother probably hadn't figured out that trick yet, still being a baby and all.)

Dave and I were just talking about how digital has changed our camera habits. He's got the new digi-cam and has taken--no joke--over a thousand photos in the two weeks he's had it. He's taken so many photos that his growing concerns have more to do with the space crappy photos--much less the good photos--are potentially going to take up on his computer. He's not the most disciplined person when it comes to jettisoning useless or ruined things--even useless or ruined digital photos that are sitting right next to beautiful photos of the exact same thing (a bug, say, or one of the many, many photos of our cat Alberdine).