Today, photographers and videographers have it easy – digital capabilities make it possible to review and alter photos and films instantly; and transporting equipment is a breeze with handheld devices. But remember the days when clear photos required still scenes and people had to stand motionless for up to 20 minutes? Or when video cameras weighed twice as much as the person carrying it?
Let’s review a few of the more notable times in Photography and Videography history to find out how we got where we are…
1826 – The first known fixed, permanent photography was taken by Nicéphore Niépce. This landscape photograph required an eight hour exposure!
1835 – William Fox Talbot creates his own photography process. A few years later he invents the positive/negative process used in modern photography.
1854 – The first greeting card was introduced! Known then as the carte de visite (French for “visiting card”), eight individually exposed images were reproduced on a single negative then cut apart and glued to calling card-sized mounts.
early camera
1861 – The first-ever color photograph is shown by James Clerk Maxwell.
1888 – Kodak introduces the first easy-to-use camera – the n1 box camera.
1891 – Thomas Edison invents and patents the first motion picture device. The kinetoscope (an early motion picture exhibition device) led way to the Kinetograph – the first motion picture camera. Movies were photographed via rapid stop-and-go film movements resulting in the appearance of fluid movement.
1901 – 120mm film is introduced by Kodak.
1914 – The first color dramatic feature film – The World, the Flesh and the Devil, is released.
1923 – Kodak introduced the first 16mm film as an inexpensive alternative to 35mm.
1926 – The first Motion Picture Duplicating film is invented to duplicate negatives. Previously, duplicates were only available if a second camera was also used.
1932 – Disney creates the first full-color movie cartoon, Flowers and Trees, in Technicolor.
8mm movie camera
1932 – For the first time, amateur 8mm movie film, cameras and projectors are available.
1934 – 135mm film is introduced specifically for still photography. The 135mm film cartridge also increased the ease of 35mm film and grew in popularity to surpass 120 film in the 1960s.
1948 – The first Polaroid instant image camera in unveiled by Edwin H. Land.
1952 – Dreams of 3-D film become reality…and the craze begins.
1957 – The first digital image on a computer is produced by Russell Kirsch.
SLR camera
1959 – Nikon introduces its first single-lens reflex camera (SLR), the Nikon F, to become the most advanced camera of its day.
1960 – EG&G develops an underwater camera that functions at extreme depths for the U.S. Navy.
1965 – Super 8 film is introduced by Kodak as an improvement of the “Regular” 8mm film format. Super 8 film allows the exposed area of the photo to be larger.
1968 – For the first time, a photograph of the Earth is taken from the moon.
1978 – The first point-and-shoot, autofocus camera is developed by Konica.
1980 – Sony introduces the first consumer camcorder.
digital camera
1984 – Canon releases the first digital camera – the first ever electronic still camera.
1985 – The first digital imaging processor is introduced by Pixar, innovatively using computer algorithms to perform image processing on digital images.
1990 – Kodak introduces the first Photo CD. The first of its kind, it allowed digital images to be stored easily.
2008 – Polaroid announces the discontinuance of instant film products, leading to surge in digital imaging technology.
Leave A Legacy is growing up! This October, our Fort Collins store celebrates 5 years of preserving memories! AND our new Denver store celebrates one year! Wow – I can’t believe we’re growing up so fast…
So…to celebrate our own upcoming anniversary, we’ve decided to share some of our gift and celebration ideas for anyone out there celebrating an anniversary of their own!
Gift Ideas
1st Anniversary – Make a photobook of your first year together. Or if you’re a photo-taking junkie and wouldn’t dream of fitting the entire first year into one book, make a photobook or DVD slideshow of your wedding and/or honeymoon!
5th Anniversary – Beginning to tire of spending lots of money on anniversary gifts? Inexpensively create a custom gift such as a champagne bottle label. Enjoy yourselves and your personalized bottle while sipping the bubbly. Include your favorite photo together and a heartfelt message expressing your love for one another.
Celebration Ideas
Newlyweds – Start a tradition. Look through your favorite photos and pick one at a meaningful location. Visit this place yearly and document your visit with a photo in the same place and position each year.
Seasoned Spouses – Get out of your daily routine of chores and evening television and stay at a romantic Bed & Breakfast. Let someone else do the cooking and cleaning for you and just relax. Bring along some home videos and scrapbooks to relive your favorite memories together.
Last month, we offered a few summer travel photo tips to keep you organized and prepared to capture those unforgettable moments. Here’s Part 2 showcasing tips on how to turn a mundane moment into a praiseworthy picture.
Don't forget to put yourself in the photo!
- GROUP SHOT. In the spirit of “no family member left behind,” it’s important to get at least one group shot while on vacation together. So whether you use a tripod or ask a total stranger to help out, it’s never too early to get your holiday card shot while the whole gang’s together.
- BLINKING IS BAD, BUT NOT LOOKING IS GOOD. On vacations, kids have the tendency to get wrapped up in many new experiences. Don’t forget to take pictures of them exploring even if they don’t know it. Some of the best pictures are the candid action shots.
- EVERY MOMENT, NOT JUST THE SCENIC ONES. Everyone loves a beautiful sunset or the iconic shot of the Empire State Building. But don’t forget to capture the less thrilling moments too, like getting packed, being in the plane or goofing off at a hotel or campsite.
- TAKE TIME TO REFLECT. At the end of each busy day, spend some time talking about each family member’s favorite moments. Add these thoughts and anecdotes to the pictures from that day to create a rich, integrated story of your special time together as a family.
- IT’S OK TO BE CLICHÉD. As photographers, we tend to want to take a photo that’s different. However, trying to frame every one of your travel photos to be ‘unique’ will either get you extremely frustrated, have you snapping up only 30 photos, or both. It’s fine to take a photo of the Eiffel Tower front-on, or the illusion that your friend’s pushing the Leaning Tower of Pisa.
- IT WON’T BE MUNDANE ONE YEAR FROM NOW. Like cliched photos, it’s also fine to take less than stunning subjects. The confusing currencies, the weird and wonderful signs, what you see while staring out the window. Don’t delete the ‘boring’ photos! They might seem mundane a few seconds after you’ve taken them. But you’d look back on them a year from now and realize just how well they’ve documented your travels.
- BE CREATIVE, USE PROPS. The souvenirs and postcards you purchase, use them as props in your next photo. It’s a sure way to get you thinking out of the box and produce some interesting photos.
- TAKE NOTES. A picture might be worth a thousand words, but sometimes it still doesn’t express how you really feel. Excitement? Culture shocked? Home sick? Carry a small notebook around and just jot down a few sentences when you feel over-whelmed to do so, along with the image number.
- PUT YOURSELF IN THE PHOTO. As photographers, we often forget to put ourselves in front of the camera. Don’t just shoot a self-portrait with your arms stretched out in front of you (yes, we’ve all done that plenty of times). Give your camera to a trusting-looking passerby!
If you are traveling this summer, you’ll want to bring your camera with you. Here are some quick tips to help make your summer travel photo experience trouble-free:
- BRING EXTRA PHOTO CARDS. If you are traveling by plane, take your camera with you on the plane. Carry at least two photo cards, or whatever you feel you will need based on the number of pictures you expect to take. Buying additional cards may be difficult, inconvenient or expensive, depending on where you are traveling.
- TO SAVE SPACE, review your photos in your camera along the way and delete any you won’t want, or bring a portable storage device so you can offload the cards and free up space.
- FOR A BACKUP in case your camera and photo cards get lost or stolen—if you have Internet access—upload your photos to a photo sharing/storage site (it’s free, you just need to sign up for a free account). You can even e-mail images to your friends and family back home.
- BRING AT LEAST ONE EXTRA BATTERY, so one battery can be charging while you are using the other one. If you are traveling overseas, try to get a dual voltage charger to avoid needing a separate voltage transformer. It is not fun to be caught with insufficient or the wrong power and miss photo ops.
- KEEP YOUR CAMERA EQUIPMENT ORGANIZED. Band the charger cords and cables with Velcro or elastic bands so they are not a jumbled mess and put them in a plastic bag with your charger and other essentials.
- BRING YOUR CAMERA WITH YOU WHEREVER YOU GO. You never know when a great photo op may arise.
- READ THE INSTRUCTIONS. If you just bought a new camera, familiarize yourself with the features before your trip. If you don’t want to drag the manual with you, you can probably look it up on line in a pinch. Since many camera manufacturers put manuals on their web site, it can’t hurt to take note of the web address so if you get stuck you can look up your camera’s features online at a cyber café.
- OUTDOOR SHOTS. When traveling you are likely to be taking a lot of outdoor shots. When taking photos in the shade or bright sunlight, use your camera’s fill flash. This will help fix contrast and dark shadows. Read your camera’s manual to learn how to use this feature on your camera.
- GETTING THERE IS HALF THE FUN. You begin traveling the moment you step out that door. So start snapping away your journey to the airport; touching down at your destination and being utterly confused; being tightly packed on a bumpy bus ride; the disappointment when your hotel doesn’t look like the picture on the brochure. Don’t forget to document the journey – the destination is only half the fun!
Leave A Legacy is one of the few companies primarily built for our local customers who wish to transfer their old memories and convert them to a more modern format, such as VHS to DVD, slide scanning to DVD and transfer 8mm film to DVD. Images, such as photographs, slides, and negatives have been around for decades as a means for people to capture special moments. Often times, as we collect and take new pictures over the years, these images can begin to take up all sorts of space! In this new technological era, many of us would find it much easier to digitize the images onto a computer, and load them all onto a DVD or a hard drive. However, many people do not have the time to do this themselves, and instead opt to use a transfer or scanning service to accomplish it for them. Usually you would box your photos up, and ship them off to destinations unknown, and pray you get everything back. However, have you looked to see if there are more convenient local options available? Here are some of the benefits of keeping your media local.
Peace of Mind – Keeping your images local, and close to you will ensure that your media will not get lost in transit, or misplaced at any point during the shipping process. Since we, at Leave A Legacy, handle all of our orders directly in our offices, you’ll know where your precious media is at all times. Once you leave your memories in our hands, they will remain safe until you come in to pick up your new DVDs.
Customer Experience – Leave A Legacy is set up to allow one on one interactions with the image scanning technician working on your order. This starts with the initial order-taking process. If at all possible, we will match your image scanning order with the technician who will be doing the bulk of the work on the order. This same technician will also be contacting you throughout the transfer process to indicate when the order had been completed, or if any additional information is required. In turn, our customers are encouraged to contact their technicians through phone or email, if they think of anything else they’d like to add or otherwise change their initial order. This will help ensure that your order is processed to your exact specifications and details.
Fast Turnaround – When dealing with local companies, you will often get a much faster turnaround than if you were to mail it off to a processing facility. Depending on how much media you bring in, we can sometimes have your order finished within 24 hours. This alone will save you not only time, but massive shipping and handling costs.
Competitive Costs – While you may not find the extreme low costs you’d see from businesses employing the use of document scanners or third-world labor, Leave A Legacy has a competitive pricing structure, with nice discounts applied if you bring in more and more media.
Courtesy of: Alan Chase
Being in Colorado we have an abundance of amazing landscape to enjoy. Let’s not take those beautiful sunsets and sunrises for granted and capture a photo of them. Below are a few tips about landscape photography to help you capture nature’s magnificence next time you are out shooting.
Time of Day
The time of day can make all the difference between a good and a fantastic landscape shot. Generally, sunrise and sunset times are both ideal, though you will get very different results. For example, the sun may be behind you in the morning, shining onto your subject, but it might be in front or off to the side later in the day. Amazing light moments can happen at any time throughout the day though. Watch the clouds to see when light is about to break through. Clouds are also a good element to include in your photo.
Equipment and Settings
A wide angle lens is one of the best pieces of equipment for taking a professional looking landscape shot. If you are an amateur and sticking with your point and shoot camera then slow down the shutter speed and close down the aperture. A tripod, if available, is helpful to keep your shot steady.
Composition
A well-composed landscape shot can have a breathtaking effect. If your subject is off in the distance, do not place it in the middle of the shot, and look for an object in the foreground for juxtaposition, such as a rock, a tree, water, and so on. This creates depth, especially if the foreground object relates in some way to the background. Also, while it is perfectly fine to put a person or animal in the photo, that person or animal automatically becomes the subject, because the human mind connects first to things that we can relate to most. But, you can use a person to help guide your audience. For example, if a person is in the photo, instruct them to look away towards the background element as opposed to looking at the camera and smiling. The photo feels much more natural, and the person’s pose effortlessly guides the eye to the element in the background that you are trying to capture. 
Lastly, try to use natural elements in the photo to frame the photo and create a “window” to look through. Natural frames keep eyes on the photo rather than guide the eyes away from the composition. A tree is often a great natural frame in a photo. Railroad tracks or fences work as well.
After the Shoot
Play with converting the photos to black and white, and adjust the contrast levels to sharpen the tones. A mediocre color shot can look exquisite after it has been converted to black and white with some contrast adjustments. Don’t forget to print your work as well! Small prints are nice, but blow up some of your favorite shots to large prints, like 24×36, 30×40 or even bigger. They look incredible as framed pieces for your home or office, and are great conversation starters!
Greek Heritage Book
One of the favorite types of projects that we get in is creating a family history book. We work with your style and make the book just how you imagine it. You may bring in a stack of old photos like this client. Bob’s photos were of his father and his aunt. Some photos had Greek writing on the back. We scanned in both the fronts and the backs to make them digital. We laid out the pages for him on our Aspen Kiosks; one photo per 12″ x 12″ page with a charcoal background. He came in and added text to most of the pages. The photos and text (from 1956-1970) tell of their brave move from Greece to Canada to start a new life. What a wonderful way to preserve your heritage for later generations. His book was bound in a bright, Greek blue buckram hardcover.
Other clients have a lot more text that tells the story and photos are used to give a visual. Another client Doris emails us the text she has written as she composes it and then brings in a few photos to add to it. Her’s will be laid out on white pages with the images inserted at the end of a section of text. Her book is laid out as a portrait 8.5″ x 11″ hardcover book. The Fausts brought in a lot of material. They brought all the text already typed up and market for where the photos should be inserted. Their book was about 650 pages of 8.5″ x 11″. We also created a DVD version of their entire book so that they can watch it on their television.
Lyle is a current client who is finishing up his work on his book. His pages are landscape 17″ x 11″. He has chosen to have it spiral bound so that later generations can continue adding information to the book. He brought in his photos, document and text on the installment plan as he came across it in his collection. So most of the organization of his book occurred in our studio and with several rough draft prints that he took home and reorganized. His is now about 340 pages. He has included everything from his family’s history (notes, letters, poems, songs, photos old and new, health records, autobiographies, awards, certificates, old cards, newspaper clippings, and much much more!
The bottom line is that at Leave A Legacy we work with you and your materials in the way you want it done and make it professional whether it is one copy or thirty.
Lynn brought in this Polaroid of her rental property. She said she couldn’t
polaroid photo that we scanned
find anything on our website about working with Polaroid prints. We were glad that she brought in her photo because we certain do work with Polaroid photos and we can do some restoration work on them as well. This was Lynn’s only photo of the property and she needed to show some evidence of the fence that was once in her yard.
restored polaroid photo
It was unfortunate that the photo had been left in direct sunlight and had faded. We scanned in her Polaroid and did some quick restoration and color adjustment and then printed out a larger print for her to use as evidence in a court case. Today’s message is that we do work with Polaroid prints as well as any other type of print, document, map, slide, negative or most anything else you can think of.
Most of us appreciate the ease of our point and shoot camera. We don’t really want to mess with lenses and filters and adjusting focus. Understanding a bit about speed, aperture and ISO may help you take your photo taking to the next level.
from camera with incorrect setting
All three of these settings help to determine the exposure on your camera whether digital or film. The shutter is a cover that allows light to enter into your camera. When you hit the button to take a photo it causes the shutter to open and close for a brief period of time. The amount of time that it is set for or shutter speed determines how long the film or sensor is exposed to light. The setting for the shutter is measured in parts of a second.
Aperture is the size of the opening inside your lens through which all light must pass before it reaches the shutter. Aperture size is expressed as “f-stop”. The smaller the f-stop, the larger the aperture or opening is.
Shutter speed and aperture control how much light gets to the sensor or film. Shutter speed also controls time. A very fast shutter speed will capture the briefest of moments on your photo like people who are in motion. A slow shutter speed will give you a better photo if your subject isn’t moving.
with optimized lighting and contrast
The aperture also controls how much of a photograph is in focus. A very small aperture opening will keep everything in the frame in focus. While a very large aperture opening (a small f-stop) will only focus at one distance.
Since both shutter speed and aperture affect the amount of light let in when you adjust one you need to adjust the other. If you widen the aperture, letting in more light, you also need to shorten the shutter speed to compensate. The good news for those of us point and shoot photographers is that our cameras make the adjustments for us.
The final setting we are going over is ISO sensitivity. ISO sensitivity also affects noise or graininess. The higher the ISO, the grainier/noisier the image will be. But higher ISO also allows you to shoot with faster shutter speeds in low light. For most amateur photographers keeping ISO lower is preferred.
memories trapped on floppies and zip disks
Another type of media that we can convert for you is floppy disks and zip disks. Though they are rather obscure today we can certainly do this digital transfer as well. The files that clients typically want captured from these disks are photo files. Recent client Eva brought in a record breaking 60 floppy disks and not so record breaking 4 zip disks. From these we captured 239 photos. She wants to use these long lost images to create several versions of a photobook about her late husband. Today we printed out some sheets with a small version of each image arranged with 16/page and with dates and titles so that she could work on arranging them at home.
Recent Post
