Photography then and now

Taking, editing, manipulating, storing and retrieving photographs in the 21st century would be a barely recognizable pastime for my ancestors of the late 1800s.

I’m lucky enough to have in my possession prints taken from Victorian plates which were taken by my great grandfather. He clearly embraced what was then a new technology by making clever double exposures of himself playing his alter ego at chess and of his wife drinking tea from a dainty cup with herself as companion. He would have had a device similar to the one below whereby focal length was adjusted manually by winding the object lens to and from the plate on rails. It is possible that he may have had his own processing facilities involving chemical baths and washes all accessed from under a black cowl by the user; dark rooms would have been a luxury.

Imagine his amazement if he could see the capabilities of today’s equipment. Instant auto-focus (which can be over-ridden), Instant and adjustable light metering, long and short focal length lenses adjustable by a thumb dab, almost infinitely adjustable processing, at times from within the camera itself, and the ability to create, duplicate, share without limit.

Even in my time I have owned cameras with a fixed lens, minimal or no exposure adjustment and cartridge film – think ‘cloudy, sunny, sun-on-beach settings! I upgraded my camera from time to time but always a few years behind the latest technology for financial reasons and still own what was the 1990s apex of my collection, the Canon 500D, an SLR with interchangeable motor-driven lenses.

In 2003 I stepped into the digital age and consigned my old cameras to a box of mementos and curios. I felt a degree of loyalty to the Canon brand and went through four or five compact ‘point and shoot’ examples before acquiring the 450D, a digital version of my prized SLR which is gratifyingly compatible with my older motor-driven lenses. Eventually I missed the convenience of a pocket sized camera and chose the Sony DSC HX50 with its barely credible 30x optical zoom. That has remained my daily camera.

Since then I seem to have taken over 27,000 images and have them stored on my laptop and backed up on at least five external hard drives. All are tagged by subject or theme or name, or all three and so are instantly retrievable. I edit only lightly by straightening horizon lines, darkening an occasional over-exposure or airbrushing out unwanted intruders.

Lately I have become excited by video and indulged myself with a GoPro ‘action camera’ which is not much bigger than a matchbox but can shoot startlingly sharp footage in up to 4k resolution and can be attached to almost anything using an array of third party fittings and gadgets. I fix it to my bike when we ride, to my car windshield when we drive, to my lapel, or handheld, when we walk. It automatically cancels out shake or vibration and has a wide variety of touch-screen settings. I can edit the footage on my laptop to cut unnecessary sections, slow down, speed up, add music, narration, captions, titles and credits and share online.

Photography in all its forms is a wonderful way to record a life lived.