“It looks just like you but ain’t you!
With all shades of red and blue!
You can see yourself but can’t feel a thing!
It’s just your snap! Darn! Lost the zing!”

My latest tech gizmo is the Ray Ban Meta which is a beautiful piece of tech!

Now while wearing my shades if I find something interesting all I need to do is tell, “Hey Meta, take a snap! or a video!” Of course you non lazy people can life your finger and press the button on top also!

But (he he!); a recent comment about photos in my fav ‘ego’ shattering group made me think about how we take having a camera for granted now!

Made me remember those film cameras!

read on!

The camera which now is of course part of the phone was once one of the most valuable devices in the house! Of course even now we do have professional DSLR cameras which are still costly and cared for as such but then that is a different ball game altogether!

Those days the camera was the one with the Kodak or the canon film! Depending on the trip dad used to take one or two films in dark coloured boxes!

Even handling those films was a talent and a rare privilege!

Forget about taking a snap, just loading the film was a complicated affair which children were never asked to do! You had to carefully take the end of the film and hook it to one of the gears on the camera from the back!

Then slowly turn it!

After every click or snap of the camera you need to load the next film by turning another wheel in the side of the camera! Till you feel a slight tension and stop! Then the camera was ready to be snapped!

There was no movement or even breathing permitted since then the photo will not come that well! The worst photos are the ones which used to have the head cut off! Another great tragedy was the hand or the finger on the sensor and the whole photo was lost behind that little tip!

Taking a photo also was special privilege! The very old and the very young were automatically disqualified since they used to ‘shake’ a lot!
You needed strong steady arms for the snap!

Now we take a snap and see if that is good! Or delete that if it is not good and take it again!

The film days did not have these luxury! Though by default the reel would have around 36 photos which apparently was a standard 35mm reel! There were professional ones with more but these were the ones which used to be used the most!

Now if you think you will get 36 photos, well that is optimistic! Mostly we used to get around 32-34 usable snaps! Or sometimes even less! Some lucky blokes get more than 36 occasionally!

Snaps were usually taken mainly in the morning in full light since many cameras had no flash! The ones which did have them had to be used very carefully since the flash takes time to get ready! It was not like the LED flash of your phone which is always ready to deliver! Some cameras had big flash with a separate battery connection of their own! I still remember my dad charging the flash for some time and then the sudden burst of light!
Our biggest issue then was not to shut the eye since we did not know when it used to come! And by luck if we did manage to get the eyes open, many would be looking like the vampire or a ghoul in a b grade movie! The dreaded red eye! When the iPhone and iPad had this amazing tool of red eye removal, it was a big thing! No options those days than to just tolerate the camera ‘conjunctivitis!’

After the snaps are complete we would either get a snap count from the premium cameras or the reel would completely stop moving! Then many cool cameras had reel rewind options! While most of the other cameras would need to be wound manually which again was an major skill! If any snap did not come well then this is the step which was usually blamed the most!

There have been mishaps in which the reel did not turn properly or got twisted! Then you would have to go to a very dark room and slowly try to retrieve whatever you could and simply pray!

The reel in that same cylindrical holder was now kept in that same dark box away from light! Ready for the studio who was always busy! The studio always used to have a special smell which I used to like! Later I got to know that it was some compound of silver which is why developing photos was not cheap!

All these were only after a long wait when the reels are given to the photo studio which is the dark room and the snaps are then posted on the ‘negative’!
The negatives were the first test on how the photos had turned out! Whether we got all 36 or not and whether the twisting and reeling worked!

Looking at the negative reel itself was a fun activity! It was like the preview of what is to come!
The negatives were the ‘sourdough’! You can make multiple copies with them! I still remember in movies when the blackmailer had to give ‘negatives’ to close the deal! Many of our albums had a small envelopes with the negatives in them for future use!

Once we select the negatives then finally the ‘positives’ or the photos would come! If you give extra then they would give the album for free! This was necessary since after some time these photos tend to fade!

Also if you did not use those transparent sheets to cover them they they either used to stick to the album or even get stained!

Albums of important occasions were a treasured memory! They used to kept along with valuables! They were more valuable now that I think about it!

I remember my first digital camera given to me by my brother which was like the film camera with no screen! I had to click a certain number of snaps and then transfer them to the computer! It was a thrill!

The old snaps with the awkward poses with bad light and really ugly decor are now some of the best photos!

Of course the heavily edited and filtered, perfectly synchronized photo with the absolutely breathtaking background is also nice so no complaints there!
Then again I am sure that these snaps would one day be called ancient and dated! Even if it has come from the Meta! That is the tragedy of tech according to this law called the Moore’s law! More on that in another blog! Tragedy reminds me of the birthday celebrity of the day who plays tragic roles in movies like my fav ‘The Last Samurai’; his name if you do not know is Ken Watanabe!

Now stop seeing those memories snaps and sleep!
Shubh ratri!