It’s National Harvey Wallbanger Day. The story goes that in 1968 during a chili tasting in San Diego, all that remained after a Laguna Beach party included vodka, Galliano, and orange juice. When the partygoers left, Harvey remained, banging his head against the wall. Or so it was said…
Today’s Post by Joe Farace
Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.—Peter De Vries, (1910 – 1993) was an American editor and novelist known for his satiric wit.
nos·tal·gia, noun. a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past, typically for a period or place with happy personal associations.
In one of the early chapters in my now abandoned book about the business of photography, A Life In Photography, I reminisce about a time I believed was the most creative in my life that in hindsight seems to have been overly-romanticized. And yes, the below photograph is me at a car show back in the 1970’s.
During this time, I was married and working full-time as an engineer for a Great Metropolitan Telephone Company in Baltimore. At the same time, I was taking photography classes two nights a week at the Maryland Institute College of Art. On top of that I was shooting weddings on Saturdays and working on assignments for my photography class on Sundays. It was a time, as I wrote, that I formerly considered the most creative in my life, at least as far as my photography was concerned. But and you know it’s the “but” that will kill you. You would have had to read the book, something that is no longer possible. to see how it all turned but I can tell you this part of the book does not have a happy ending.
The art of shooting film
Nowadays I wonder if, more than anything else, if that during this time I was really more nostalgic about the art and craft of shooting film, something that Barry Staver and I talk about in our most recent Pixels, Grain and Cookies podcast. These days I see something similar to this feeling with young photographers; Initially they’re attracted to the immediacy of shooting digital images but then they become drawn not only to the handcrafted aspects of film photography but to the cameras as well.
Take the most humblest form of film cameras; the point-and-shoot, I have a few including a Minolta Prod 20 and a Leica Z2X that I use regularly.
Today some point-and-shoot digital cameras are plastic bodied technology receptacles or are expensive high end models. Back in the day, even inexpensive film cameras, such as the Minolta HiMatic or Olympus Trip 35, had well-made metal bodies with glass lenses and today are affordable usable image making tools.
There are a number of specialty photo labs and camera stores that process film and will scan the images for you. Use your favorite search engine to find one nearby. For scanning your existing slides or negatives, take a look at ScanMyPhotos.com, who has done great work for me scanning prints as well as some of old slides—even Perutz Color—of cars and motorsports. You can read about the latter here on my car photography blog.
So dust off that old film camera or hang out on eBay to find the film camera of your dreams to discover out what all the fuss is all about.
If you enjoyed today’s blog post or have pity on me for the aforementioned bemused mutterings and would like to buy Joe a cup of Earl Grey tea ($2.50) as a thank you, click here.