The end of an era..... Do you recognize this little box? Before the digital age of technology spread to photography our only way to take colored pictures was to use Kodachrome film. As Realtors, can you imagine doing our job without the instant age of today's technology? Now we can stand in front of our listings take that perfect picture capturing the best angles on our cell phones or digital cameras, load them into our computers and blast within minutes of taking that snapshot out to the world simply amazing. Everything is now done with the click of a mouse; import your picture, make an e-flyer, put together an e-mail blast, post a blog, send a link on Twitter, Facebook, Myspace or text your new listing with our digital pictures.
It wasn't always this easy there was time and attention to detail when it came to taking pictures on our old 35mm cameras. We were limited to 36 pictures to a roll and really had to make sure we were making those snapshots count. Unlike today, we take multiple pictures on our digital cameras with instant results even deleting pictures as we go in search of the perfect poses. I remember as a kid posing for those family get togethers like past Thanksgivings making sure we were all ready, mom or dad saying 'now don't make those funny faces', they were in search of those perfect family moments we all wanted to capture and share. The funny thing was we generally didn't see those pictures until the next major family holiday if we were lucky. Each roll was 36 pictures if all the shots were not taken at one function then the camera went back in the drawer until it was next time to break out the smile. At which point that roll of film hit the good old family junk drawer... ours was a bottomless pit with of rolls of film, paper clips, scissors and glue and any other junk needing to be hid. At some point all the filmed was gathered up and sent away to some place God only knows where and in weeks we had our pictures back. It was exciting to sit down with the family and look back at those photos sharing those special moments again. Sometimes you ordered doubles so you could share those special moments with other friends or family members. I remember always being told don't touch the pictures or the negatives you will leave finger prints all over them! So as always we gently went through the many developed pictures reflecting on the poses or places captured, I cherished those times.
As I started this blog with the words 'end of an era' by the end of 2010 you will no longer be able to get your Kodachrome pictures developed anywhere, believe it or not there is only 1 place in the entire world that you can get your rolls of film developed, it's right here in America, Parsons Kansas. Once there was 2000 places to develop your Kodachrome film now Dwayne's Photo in Parsons is the only place that can do this developing. The reason why I share this blog is I know somewhere in your families junk drawers just like mine you need to dig those rolls out and get those rolls of film developed before we all loose those cherished moments forever. Who knows what is on the rolls of film pictures of relatives past, birthday celebrations, past vacations, school functions? We took our time to make sure those pictures had the perfect poses and sometimes we let those silly faces be made as a way to show we don't always have to be stoic for those serious shots, it would be ashame to loose them forever. Another little slice of Americana is going down in the history books, what's next?
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