Kodak moments

Marijka (sp?) and Marjan

I'm always looking to capture what we used to call a "Kodak moment" on film. We had a new hiker who joined us last week, another woman from Holland. She and Marjan immediately connected and I got to eavesdrop on some Dutch banter. The picture was taken with the "low light" setting and I wasn't happy with how washed out the two ladies look, compared with the red of Linda's hat and the green of the trees. I'm going to use that setting sparingly.

My very first camera was a Kodak Brownie, similar to this one, I think. It was so long ago I can only remember that it had 127 film and had to be put into the camera in the dark. I pushed that little white button to take a picture and then wind the dial until it stopped, so I wouldn't end up with two pictures on the same film. Kodak, I see, is filing for bankruptcy, since nobody ever uses film any more. They tried to make the transition to digital but nobody bought their cameras. I loved my little Brownie but I don't know where any of the pictures are that I took way back when.

I have several pictures in my possession that were taken with a Polaroid. Judging by the way the pictures look and the time this camera was manufactured, it was probably a Polaroid 800. I was around fifteen or sixteen at the time, I think. I even took a few myself, my old Brownie by then part of the distant past. I've never been very good at keeping possessions in pristine condition, or even in any condition. They just fade into oblivion. What amazes me is that when I looked at the picture of the Polaroid, I could still remember the smell of the developer as we stood around waiting impatiently for the magic picture to appear. How far we have come from those days!

I had another little point-and-shoot camera during the time I lived in Boulder and went to Peru (that was 1981), but I've no idea what it looked like or what kind it was. I do have a drawer full of old negatives that I cannot bring myself to throw out. But it does seem that all those old slides and negatives will never be used again. I wonder if those old slides can be converted to a digital format. I am unwilling to toss them, so maybe I'll find some way to preserve those old memories. When I hold them up to the light and look at the images, many of them take me back to bygone days.

Today, however, I am totally converted to digital cameras. All my pictures that were on my stolen iPad are safe on my home computer, and the most important of them I have backed up in the "cloud." Before too long I'll have even more of my treasures stored there. Who would have guessed a decade ago that Kodak moments would no longer be captured by Kodak? Or on film at all. The company will soon join Studebaker, Pan Am, and even Pontiac, the last of which was built in 2009. The times are definitely changing. Digital cameras are one change that I love!
:-)