Ah, yes. Memories.

Without doubt one of the very greatest pleasures in life, stumbling across old photos either forgotten or 'almost forgotten'. That alone justifies being a keen amateur photographer. Now sadly (largely) denied to me as I have spent three years scanning my old negatives and slides into Aperture.

Some hope, though. The first film I took with my Fuji ST705 in the 1970s - my very first SLR - is missing; so who knows what else I might yet stumble across.

The oldest of my own photos goes back to the 1960s, but I have quite a few my father took on service in Africa during WWII.

Thanks, aetas!

JorPet said:
Very true. Time marches on and technology spoils us.

I always get a kick out of taking my N6006 out and taking pictures. Kids run up and want to see the back of the camera, so I show it to them. They give me a really puzzled look that there isn't a picture of them there. I don't even try to explain the technology that is being used. Might as well be hand pumping water from a well.

When I was shooting with the FM2 I was confused, I kept looking down at the back and seeing a memo holder and then I go... "Oh yeah. I'm shooting film."

NSXType-R said:
It's strange, but just 200 years back people wouldn't have any clue what they looked like when they were a child. Now it's so cheap to do so with digital photography people don't look at it as anything significant anymore.

Very true. Time marches on and technology spoils us.

I always get a kick out of taking my N6006 out and taking pictures. Kids run up and want to see the back of the camera, so I show it to them. They give me a really puzzled look that there isn't a picture of them there. I don't even try to explain the technology that is being used. Might as well be hand pumping water from a well.

gelu88 said:
I went through some older pictures yesterday, 2003-2005 which were my last years of highschool.

i had a 5 MP panasonic, which for some reason i though was "too much" so i shot everything at 1200x1600(~2MP)

they are all pretty much crap, but there are hundreds of them, which brings back lots of cool, though sometimes uncomfortable memories

My oldest digital photos go back to 2003. Digital memory was pretty expensive, but since it was just a whopping 3.2 MP, I still fit a lot of photos on a card. So basically, it was cheap enough to photograph a lot of stupid stuff. However, it is a pretty good photographic time line.

JorPet said:
Had to chuckle at the age of your photos. I should have pointed out the Mt. Rainier pictures I was looking at came from July '83. There were a series of water skiing slides in the pile as well that were taken the morning after our all night HS Graduation party. So that would have been June '79. Back when my AE-1 was only a couple years old...

That said, all the pictures I take are really so that I can go back years later and remember everything about the event. For me that is all I really want from my photos.

(Mike will probably come in and laugh at the dates of my pictures, but I can take it... I do have some old Kodak Instamatic pics from around '70, any earlier than that and it was my parents taking the picture."

It's strange, but just 200 years back people wouldn't have any clue what they looked like when they were a child. Now it's so cheap to do so with digital photography people don't look at it as anything significant anymore.

gelu88 said:
I went through some older pictures yesterday, 2003-2005 which were my last years of highschool.

...

they are all pretty much crap, but there are hundreds of them, which brings back lots of cool, though sometimes uncomfortable memories

Had to chuckle at the age of your photos. I should have pointed out the Mt. Rainier pictures I was looking at came from July '83. There were a series of water skiing slides in the pile as well that were taken the morning after our all night HS Graduation party. So that would have been June '79. Back when my AE-1 was only a couple years old...

That said, all the pictures I take are really so that I can go back years later and remember everything about the event. For me that is all I really want from my photos.

(Mike will probably come in and laugh at the dates of my pictures, but I can take it... I do have some old Kodak Instamatic pics from around '70, any earlier than that and it was my parents taking the picture."

I went through some older pictures yesterday, 2003-2005 which were my last years of highschool.

i had a 5 MP panasonic, which for some reason i though was "too much" so i shot everything at 1200x1600(~2MP)

they are all pretty much crap, but there are hundreds of them, which brings back lots of cool, though sometimes uncomfortable memories

In portland there are still a few places that allow this. Its a neat experience for some that have never done it and are interested in photography. My wife is getting more and more into the art and was just saying the other day that she wanted to grab her dads Mamiya MSX 1000 and try to develop the film herself...With some help from me=)
Im really looking forward to this.
~Cheers

NSXType-R said:
Yup, it'd be really cool to do a project where you take a roll of film, expose it, stick it in a time capsule and open it up 10 years or maybe 5 years from now. Just don't push it too far, or maybe there won't be an easy way to develop film. :D

I wish I could motivate my kids to do some "dark-room" development of B&W film... something that is also hard to find these days (in this area).

rbid said:
@warprints: Thanks for the advice, I will take a look.
@NSXType-R: I have several boxes with photos that are still not organized, and always is a nice experience to sit and look at them from time to time. Look how the family changed for example. I also have boxes with negatives that I should scan into a digital form.

Yup, it'd be really cool to do a project where you take a roll of film, expose it, stick it in a time capsule and open it up 10 years or maybe 5 years from now. Just don't push it too far, or maybe there won't be an easy way to develop film. :D

Im glad I could help=)
Old photos are amazing it really is just so cool to be able to look back and remember when.
~Cheers

You just made me look though some old slides I have in my desk. Guess what? I found the Mt Rainier climb pictures a friend was asking about last week (who I haven't seen face to face in nearly 20 years). Will have to get them scanned and a copy sent to him.

I love finding old pictures I have forgotten about. I can always remember the place and circumstance when it was taken.

@warprints: Thanks for the advice, I will take a look.
@NSXType-R: I have several boxes with photos that are still not organized, and always is a nice experience to sit and look at them from time to time. Look how the family changed for example. I also have boxes with negatives that I should scan into a digital form.

rbid said:
My problem is not to remember where/when I took the photo, my problem is in finding the photo under the thousands of files or printed photos.

Maybe a good program for organizing them is out there. (for off-line cataloging)

Have you looked at IDImager? I've played with it some - you gotta really be into cataloging - it's not a basic level program.

Yes, I left some photos on a really old memory card when I was going through my memory collection. Pretty cool to find that stuff.

That is the magic in taking photos, that bring you nice memories back

I did not mean that I forgot when I took the photo just that I put it away and was going through a box of old photos and came across it. I remember the time and place. Even that there is a roommate ducking on the other side of the wall because "he was in my shot".
~Cheers

My problem is not to remember where/when I took the photo, my problem is in finding the photo under the thousands of files or printed photos.

Maybe a good program for organizing them is out there. (for off-line cataloging)

Well, I don't have the "problem" that I can remember all of my photos. It is rather nice to be able to pull out some old photos and be reminded of things you didn't remember. It's like a preview of dementia - you get to discover old things like they're new again ! (I have over 45 years of photos I've taken - no way I can remember all of them, much less even where they all are.)

Yes it can be quite fun isn't it? First thing that popped into my mind was "wow I got to try and scan some of these!"

Yes, but most before about 5 years ago aren't really usable for anything since they came from my 3.2 MP Kodak camera.

Hope uncle Alzheimer will not come to me.
I take photos since I was 10, and I can tell you almost with 100% of probability the place and date for every photo I have taken. (I have good photographic memory), although if you ask me who is in the photos I may not be able to remember :)

This remembers a book from Umberto Echo: "The Mysterious Flame of Queen Loana" that I'm reading just now...

I found a photo taken with a (gasp) Canon AE1 of a bunch of stolen teddy bears drinking out of shot glasses playing poker. With a bottle of Budweiser next to them.

No I dont know where the teddybears came from. Except one is wearing some panties.

Everyone finds old photos from time to time but this one is kinda cool to me because it was one of the first prints I ever printed myself(b&w).

Any of you ever have a oh I forgot about that photo moment?
~Cheers