Do you remember when your folks would go over to your neighbours house down the street so they can view their vacation slides? No, neither do I, my parents didn’t do that sort of thing. Perhaps it was before my time, or maybe it was something that only happened on old TV sitcoms. The slide show was the first technological form of picture sharing where you could share your pictures with a big group similtaneously. You invite your friends and family over for some food and beverages and then fire up the slide projector filled with your vacation photos from the grand canyon. Do people even do that sort of family roadtripping anymore?
I have used slide film in the past and do have a few slides stored away but I never actually viewed them through a projector. My only real experience with slide projectors until recently were for educational purposes. Boring slide presentations at school. That sort of thing. So I’m happy to say that I’ve finally caught up to the 20th century and own a Kodak Slide projector.
It’s wonderful how you can pick up these technological gems for next to nothing. I have to thanks Craigs List.
I’ve often seen slide shows. Not all the families who have been to a trip could afford organizing a slide show, but some learned member of the society who took photography seriously would indeed only use slide film and carefully organize them into a big show. And I’ve also been to several professional or semi-professional slide shows. A number of them were boring, hastily organized or lacking originality. But I do love the idea. I only use slide films for cross processing purposes but if I had a projector I would love to make some shows. You gave me an idea.
My parents used to show me slides from when they were younger.
There’s nothing like view slides in a nice dark room. Seeing your pictures enlarged on a wall.
My dad (along with my grandfather) was a bit of a photographer. So I have TONS upon TONS of slides of my sister and I as kids. Some good, some not
This was back in the early-to-mid 70′s and I think kodachrome was big back then (probably the only trans they had back then??) Every christmas (especially lately) we would take out the projector and throw up a sheet and look at the old slides.
I used alot of slides. In college and after. This was early 90s, so digital wasnt taking a hold yet of the industry. There’s nothing that gives a better picture than a 4×5 or 8×10 tranny. done correctly, they are breathtaking. Digital still doesnt hold up as far as quality to large format… but its certainly faster and easier to work with digital. Just so much fewer steps.
Wow, slide shows…doesn’t that bring back memories of my University Professors trying to make their field work from the 70′s and 80′ still seem relevant in the late 1990′s & early 21st century!!!
Glad you have caught up with the Times Rannie
i think!!!
A good set of slides projected on a screen are quite stunning. The fact that it’s light creating the image, and not just illuminating dyes or something… and it’s the fact that sometimes it’s hard to get prints made at the size you can easily project with the right room size/lens combination. The only thing better, IMO, is viewing the actual slides on a light table. And Allen’s right… 4×5 (or larger) slides on a light table are just phenomenal.
Our Camera Club in Waterloo still has a fairly large population of folks shooting slide film.
my mum just brought me home a slide projector they were going to throw out at work. I just need some slides now!
All the people I knew who showed their vacation slides on a projector always had been to far and exotic trips, like China or India.
Suprisingly enough, slides are a big part of my business at the photolab. Lots of people are either wanting to back their old slides up onto CD, or are stubling across slides from dead relatives’ houses and want prints. So even though most people don’t get them developed anymore, there are a LOT of them already in existance.
Slides! I have two thoughts about slides – love ‘em, and hate ‘em. This Thanksgiving we went to my in-laws and after dinner decided to get the slide projector out and look at old slides from the 60′s and 70′s. What a wonderful set of photos (like http://www.seemsartless.com/index.php?pic=480 and http://www.seemsartless.com/index.php?pic=481 ). The sound of the projector fan, and the smell of the bulb as it gets really hot is such part of the experience, as is the ‘hardware’ http://www.seemsartless.com/index.php?pic=477.
I was also reminded of the “Hate ‘em” aspect as our 4 year old got more and more ‘impatient’ (to say the least) as we adults laughed over most of the pictures.
i love slides! my vegetable drawer contains a dozen rolls of velvia, but i always think twice before i shoot with it: 6X6 positives are a hassle – and cost a fortune – to get processed here. i found an internet lab a couple of weeks ago that i’m going to try out; if they’re good then i can go wild for a while…:-)
Congrats on the new purchase, Rannie.
Slides are more expensive to shoot than negs, but for sheer scannability they win (no tricky colour correction or inversion). I still shoot slides whenever I do colour work. I’ve even processed them myself at home (though I wouldn’t recommend it unless you have lots of spare time and shoot 8-10 rolls of slides per week).
Slide film can be had cheaply — the out-of-date stuff is often still very usable (I’m using some 1999 Velvia with great results). Processing is another matter.
As a family, we used to sit through “pictures on the wall” at family events, once or twice a year. I loved it as a kid. My dad would show slides of us as babies, my mum on the beach etc. We plan on repeating it this Christmas for old times sake. I’m still not sure why my dad only used slide film.
I was debating buying one on ebay just the other day… i have one i used to use for art installation but it’s now as ‘sticky’ as the kind your grade 7 teacher used to go batty over. never switching when its supposed to. definitely an interesting venture if you remember to load them all in the right side up.
btw rannie, congrats on page 17 of Broken Pencil.
To answer Lala’s question, slides were historically more prevalent than they are now simply because the colour neg process used to be much poorer. It had bad colour fidelity and the prints faded. Slides, however, didn’t have to go through a printing step and were always consistently brighter and more colourful.
As colour neg film and printing got better, slides became less popular.