PHOTOS RECORD THE HISTORY OF YOUR JOURNEY Preserving Your Memories
BY WALTER SOMMERFELT
B y all accounts, man has always had a way to preserve his his- tory. From carvings on cave walls to scrolls, drawings, paint- ings, photographs, and other objects, man has always found a way to keep a record of his history in our ever-changing and developing world. As human beings, everyone has some type of recorded history from the cradle to the grave. For most of us, it started at birth when that first photograph of the day we were born was taken. Our life in pictures was often followed by numerous other firsts in our lives; the first steps, first birthday, the first day of school, annual school pictures, certain religious ceremonies, kindergarten, elementary school, high school, and college graduations, the first dance, proms, engagements, weddings, and all of the special events in our lives. Preserving our memories has always been a great and valuable part of life. Most of us enjoy sitting down occasionally to view old photos from our youth; our parents and our many friends and family from years gone by. Each photo is a captured moment in time that can reignite significant memories from our life. For those of us born during the twentieth century, these memories vary greatly. During our youth, old-fashioned cameras that used film were used to record those moments. When you took a picture, it sat cap- tured on the film until the whole roll had been shot. Eventually, the film was sent to a lab to be developed. This process usually took a few days to a week, and you just hoped that the pictures came out well. If it was moving pictures you wanted, these were done on 8mm cameras that were fairly expensive, and most people did not own one. Eventually, in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, video cameras that used VHS or BETA tape were developed so that you could now record and preserve every moment— almost in an instant. These early video cameras were large and bulky, but you were now able to record all of those special moments in life as home movies. In the early days, photographs were only taken in black and white. With progress, eventually, color photos came on the scene. In all cases, you saw the actual photo as it was taken. There were no do-overs and you could not see the pictures until they were developed. Kodak was a huge company back in the day and was known for having the best film, cameras, and film development.
50 | SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JULY 2021
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