Being Old Fashioned is Cool

[Gdad]

That's what my eight year old daughter said last night when she looked at a Velvia 50 slide for the first time ever in her life. I was scanning some slides from last summer's vacation in the mountains and she came in the office saying she couldn't sleep. Insomnia immediately turned into interest when she saw the illuminator and lupe I picked up the other day. She spent the next half hour or so looking through slides while I tried to explain how analog photography worked. She went to bed after telling me that sometimes being old fashioned is cool.

 

[Quicklabs]

Jeff, all I can say is how happy I am that you two have these special times together. There are few things more important in this world than a father who takes time with his daughter. These moments that the two of you share together are building more than her photography skills--they are building the confidence that she will need to meet life head on as a woman. I know this sounds sappy, but there has been no greater influence in my life than the times my dad spent with me as a little girl.
And nice shot, BTW!

 

[Evad]

That's so cool Jeff.

Nice to hear she shares your enjoyment for something you love doing.
Jenny and I have a similar connection when comes to hockey (we both play) motorcycling (she rides with me sometimes) and of course photography (she has my old fuji).

Great shot btw!!!

 

[spinetnglr]

Jeff, all I can say is how happy I am that you two have these special times together. There are few things more important in this world than a father who takes time with his daughter. These moments that the two of you share together are building more than her photography skills--they are building the confidence that she will need to meet life head on as a woman. I know this sounds sappy, but there has been no greater influence in my life than the times my dad spent with me as a little girl.
And nice shot, BTW!

I couldn't agree with this statement more!!! Great picture and even better story behind the picture Jeff.

 

[pointandshoot]

Thanks for sharing. Couple of thoughts.

Slides are magic. I sure do miss them. Projected, on a light box, they have depth that digital does not in my opinion.

Your story has me even more excited about this week. After a long summer of my knee rehab, I am finally mobile enough for a daddy/daughter trip. My daughter and I are travelling with mom to the mountains. She has to work but we get our time shooting pictures together. I love the evenings when we load our pictures into the computer and talk about what we saw and share. Those little, small moments together make life worthwhile.

We also share martial arts together. Which is another story...

Chuck

 

[Groucho]

Hey, that sounds like my son when we were going through my grandfather's slides - especially I came across a Kodak Kodaslide Pocket Viewer, which starts as a small square and unfolds into a kind of "C"-shaped device with a magnifying glass about 2" away from a slide mount with translucent plastic behind it. Not a bad way of viewing slides on the cheap. (Isn't it "loupe", BTW?)

I've never shot slides but my grandfather shot it pretty much exclusively, and we have stacks and stacks of carousels loaded with his slides, which I am slowly scanning in bit by bit. (Naturally, I started with the Disney ones from 1985. ) I remember when I was a kid, him dragging out the projector and showing us slideshows (long before Powerpoint!) - they were a little dreary and dull to a little boy but they are pretty fascinating now; they were quite the world travelers.

I also managed to get my hands on a stack of slides used at a movie theater for showing before the movie would start, I use them as a screen saver on my home theater PC.

Point being, old fashioned is cool, I'm making sure my kids know that too. My boy was also pretty excited when I picked up a record player for his room and we pulled out stacks of old records to play on it; much more interesting than just popping in a CD or MP3!

Nice shot too - how long before you pick up a Coolscan? I'm sure it won't be long.

 

[Gdad]

Thanks so much for the sentiments all- our conversation last night finally got me off dead center on doing my own developing. I ordered some goodies from B&H (changing bag, tank, reels, etc.) so I am looking forward to her seeing the process from start to finish.

Groucho- No Coolscan in my future. I needed something that takes 120 since I got another new camera- so I got a flatbed.

 

[Groucho]

Shoulda checked Craigslist - around here, there are people unloading complete developing setups all the time for dirt cheap on there. (I recently bought a big box full of various supplies for $25 just to get a big pile of archival negative sleeves.) Then again, the Craigslist photo section is a dangerous place for me; it would probably be much worse for you!

As for the scanner - yeah but a flatbed can't match the 35mm quality of a Coolscan. Then again, a Coolscan is pricey and I'm kind of stuck in the loop of using Vuescan and trying to scan everything "raw" which means I'm ending up with unbelievably huge files (would you believe, about 135 megs per image? ) that I need to bring into Lightroom and twiddle with a little before getting what I want? And that's not counting special calibration for each roll of negatives to get consistent colors... I need to figure out a better/faster way. Sometimes too much control is, well, too much!

 

[Icemann]

This young lady is very lucky to have a dad like you most parents today don't care about their kids lives.That picture is a true Kodak moment you should enter that in a contest

 

[pointandshoot]

Thanks so much for the sentiments all- our conversation last night finally got me off dead center on doing my own developing. I ordered some goodies from B&H (changing bag, tank, reels, etc.) so I am looking forward to her seeing the process from start to finish.

Groucho- No Coolscan in my future. I needed something that takes 120 since I got another new camera- so I got a flatbed.

Heck, I would have mailed you my developer stuff. If you need any more items, PM me. I will be glad to send it to a new home.

Chuck

 

[oregondaddyof2]

Amazing picture as always Jeff... Absolutely amazing!