These days with the advent of digital photography, our children have the ability to snap themselves on their cameras, their mobile phones and their web cams at their whim. There are literally thousands of photos that my kids have taken of themselves stored on our hard drives. The pic in the mirror, the point at yourself and pout shot, the constant stream of comedy photographs taken during car journeys to keep them entertained. The opportunities are endless!
Looking back at my childhood, photography was expensive and taking photographs was limited to the 24 exposures you had on your roll of film. There was no instant gratification as you had to send the film away to be developed and then wait in anticipation for the envelope of photographs to be returned. Probably 50 % would be rubbish, but you'd hope for at least 5 good shots that you could be proud of!
That was why the Photo Booths played such a big role in our childhoods. Piling ourselves into the little cubicle, drawing the curtain, squeezing onto the stool before popping our cash into the slot was a ritual carried out when we went into town shopping. Nowadays booths are really only for passport photos, producing 4 identical shots for an exorbitant fee! Back then, it was an opportunity to pull silly faces, jump in on your friend's pose and generally act daft, capturing the moment forever on the iconic strip of photos that were delivered to you from the machine. The anticipation of seeing the snaps while you waited, trying to guess the moment when your still wet photographs would be spat out so you could quickly snatch them up in order to be the first to see them, was such a buzz!
My Flashback Friday entry plays homage to the photo booths of my youth!
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