I may have mentioned, a number of posts ago, I have been digitizing my collection of film negatives.
For those of you who may not remember, film was the medium that captured light from the lens of a camera before digital cameras existed. After loading a roll of film (in a light-proof canister) in the camera, clicking the shutter and advancing the film 24 or 36 times, rolling the film back into the can, one would take it to the camera shop for development. A week or so later one would get a set of photos back, and the negatives from which the photos were printed.
I have negatives from the 1980s, which I kept in archival plastic pockets since that time.
Photography has changed a lot since that time. I had to set the aperture and exposure time manually with my camera. In order to assure that I got the right exposure in questionable lighting, I ‘bracketed the shot’. That meant I shot at least three pictures of the subject, changing the aperture or shutter with each shot, hoping that one of the exposures resulted in a properly exposed negative.
Found art:
In combing though my newly-revived photographs, I found this one. After work we used to play softball. There weren’t many dirt fields in Manhattan available on short notice, so we would shlep to one of the asphalt school yards to play ball.
This shot, circa 1990 caught a glimpse of the phantom as he tried for a base hit.
The Phantom
Those fields still aren’t available! Well maybe early in the morning or if you’re very lucky.
You gotta know someone, I guess…
Reblogged this on suze2849.
Ah memories. If the shutter was open for long enough – for example during group school photographs – it was possible to run along the back of the line from one end to the other and appear in the shot twice. If you weren’t quick enough you would be a phantom. Carol Ann Duffy has a poem, The Good Teachers, in which she refers to this.
Yes. This was particularly true in those old panoramic class pictures, which required very slow shutter speeds.
Thanks, Liz.
Jack