A fourth reflection on the 10,000 photos that I can access any time

In three earlier pieces (click here for the most recent one) I have reflected on the 10,000 photos that I can access any time. They are either personal to me or were sent my way, as prints or digitally. I have broken this theme into smaller chunks, under 1,000 words per post. This fourth piece covers 1986-2004, years when photos were taken on a 35mm camera or an APS camera and developed in a Photo Lab.

My brother’s daughter was born in 1986. As I have written earlier, “From that point onwards I took far more photos then ever before. I bought my first 35mm camera …” My sister’s daughter was born in 1988, my brother’s son was born in 1991, and between those years my godson was born, in 1989. He is the second son of some close family friends.

From 1986 onwards there are thousands of prints of all four children from every celebration that I was at: baptisms, Christmas, Easter and summer holidays, birthdays, First Holy Communions. I would typically get three or even four sets of prints developed at the same time. It was cheaper than ordering reprints at a later date. Many of these packets of reprints, intended for friends and family members, never made it the planned recipients, so they are still in my possession. I have not had a clear-out of duplicates.

My wife and I started going out in 1999 and were married in 2001. During that time she was advised (mistakenly in retrospect) to trade in her high-quality but cumbersome 35mm camera (multiple lenses, tripod, the works) for the latest technology: a lightweight APS camera. From around 2000 onwards most of our photos were taken in this format. Prints were developed, as before, at a High Street processing lab. The original cartridge could be used for reprints, instead of a set of negatives, but I kept up with the usual habit of getting at least one extra set of prints every time a film was developed.

These APS prints come in carboard boxes, some of them much wider than standard photos: APS allows for very wide landscape images. Usually we would also order a set of digital images on a CD at the same time as the prints, so from 2000 onwards we have most of our photos available as digital files.

On reflection we should have kept with 35mm technology and waited until digital cameras were more affordable, which happened in 2004. After that the APS camera was hardly used. I can’t even picture where it is right now.

From 2004, the year our son was born, digital images became the norm. I would still have some photos developed, but usually by copying the files onto CD. That will be the subject of my next “10,000 Photos” piece.