19 Comments
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Kelly Courtez's avatar

Lol oh this was wonderful!

You just made me remember me and my dad buying boxes of flashcubes for our camera. It was a cube so only four flashes and we had to get it right lol. I feel like we had better photos then than we do now and maybe it's because we knew we had limited flashcubes 😂 Thanks for helping me recall this memory! I have a great photo of my dad looking his most happiest. I must have taken it when I was about 10. With the flashcube camera lol

My favourite observation: "Then four more times until I have seven versions of the same moment and have to choose between them, which takes longer than the moment itself took to happen."

Brad Davenport's avatar

Thanks Kelly. I’m glad it brought back happy memories 🙂

Kanti Kumar's avatar

Not to think about all the zillions of shots we take in pursuit of the perfect one that disappear into the memory cards, and laptops if we are persistent and impatient enough, never to be seen, printed or framed ever.... I'm looking to sort through thousands of such shots stored in digital memory, with the goal of hanging a select few on our library wall sometime in the future, by when memory cards may become a nostalgic memory...

Brad Davenport's avatar

I sometimes wonder if making it so easy to take hundreds of pictures diminishes their meaning. You know, too much of a good thing

Kanti Kumar's avatar

The beauty and value of film photography lie in its scarcity, indeed. And we were more creative and careful with the limited shots available then.

The Pupcast's avatar

And if you think about it…a total stranger, some kid at a photo booth, got to see these pictures before you did….

Brad Davenport's avatar

I bet they had some fun back in the day with that 😀

Brad Davenport's avatar

Yes that’s sad

Ed Whysitfeelsogood's avatar

This took me back decades. Made me smile, nod in agreement. Cheers!

Brad Davenport's avatar

You’re welcome, thank you for reading

Raymond Yap's avatar

That was the beginning of the Captcha test

Brad Davenport's avatar

It would make an interesting captcha. 😀

George G's avatar

With computational photography, AI, and other real-time photoshop tricks, we’re in a very weird place now. I’ve heard discussions trying to pin down exactly “what is a photo,” that can trigger migraines. We need to go back to film.

Brad Davenport's avatar

Well it is still available but I doubt people will go back to it

Alex Matthew's avatar

Oh, those were the good old days of film rolls! It used to be that photo albums were the first things you would save in case of fire. I guess nobody cares about them anymore when you have a multitude of versions of every moment in every gadget! Photographs have lost their luster.😔

Brad Davenport's avatar

One more thing to add to the ever growing list

Birgit Sideways 🌞's avatar

You catched exactly the feeling I remember so well! Thank you for this wonderful piece.

Brad Davenport's avatar

You’re welcome thanks for reading 😀