Somewhere in the last century, not that long after I met my wife, I proposed ( no, not that way, yet) that we send out holiday cards. Forty some years later, here are some examples and some stories behind them.
A simple selfie, camera on tripod, flash, some background elements and send the negative off to get prints made.
Again, a simple selfie. I used the self timer on my Nikon F. I managed to catch the height of our jumps. Photo was taken just around the corner from where my parents lived at the time.
We got married, things happened. First Christmas!
Self timer, flash, background set up in living room. Not easy to get a 11 month old to look at the camera when her parents are behind her.
Somewhere near Mamoth Cave Kentucky was this motel of teepees.We couldn’t resist.
The first photograph that our daughter took. I hard wired a release cable to the motor drive on my camera and gave her the release button. This was to show off our new canoe.
Our daughter early on showed that she was a good painter, but not very good at painting faces.
A dog showed up. This was 1993 and I was already thick into digital photography.
The process then was, take and select photo. Borrow neighbours Logitech hand scanner, create digital file small enough to fit onto a floppy disk. Manipulate photo in Corel PhotoPaint 3. put file onto floppy disk, Take file to service bureau and convince them to make a colour negative. Take negative home and print 100 or so copies in my darkroom.
Okay, I got carried away. Corel PhotoPaint 4. For historical sense, layers were still in the preliminary testing stages for photo editing. I wouldn’t see them for a couple more years. I had to build up the image cutting and pasting one image on top of another.
1996, the year I discovered PhotoShop and the internet. Still the same nonsense of scanning and getting a negative made.
1998, Layers at last, it made compositing photos so much easier. This also marked my last year of full time professional photography.
A few years later, she is growing up.
And whoever said that you shouldn’t use a fish eye lens to do a family portrait. This was shot on my then new Nikon D100.
Remote radio triggers and fill flash can be your friend.
12 years ago we moved west. Photo by our future son-in-law.
And the ancients enjoying the autumn leaves at Royal Roads. Still a radio remote release and fill flash.
Just have to take a photo for this year.