The Family Slide Show.

[Bearair]

My father was a keen amateur photographer throughout the 50s,60s and 70s. He had his own darkroom and produced black and white prints and slides. As a child I remember very well the slide show evenings we used to have. Sometimes of our family holidays or of events like Christmas or Easter. There was a real sense of occasion as we set up the screen and the projector, as a child I waited eagerly for the lights to go out and we would relive our escapades. When I was old enough to go on my travels around the world (armed with a Nikormat, a 50mm, 28 and 100mm lens) I would often send the unprocessed films back to dad and when I got home months later, there would be the slides waiting for my commentary to my parents, grandparents and often neighbours. I know it has become a bit of a cliche with the jokes about "inviting the neighbours around for the holiday photos" but I have to say I miss it.

Which brings me to my point, with modern digital photography does anyone have the equivalent of the family slide show? Do you think there is a way of reproducing that "atmosphere" of a long gone tradition? I have tried showing pictures on the TV and even borrowing a projector from work to connect to the computer. Somehow it never quite captures that "magic" I felt as a child and young man. I cannot help but feel that with the marvels of a digital world and the ability to share with friends and family instantly from anywhere in the world we "look" at more pictures now than ever before. But I do wonder if we really "see" them?

[FUJI]

I have often pondered this myself, especially now, in my later years...

I must be amongst the very last of kids who were entertained at Sunday School or even at school by someone using a Magic Lantern.....no....don't laugh, it is perfectly true.....everything technical on the civilian side came to an abrupt halt in the late 1930 s and it wasn't until around 1948 that things began moving again, consequently equipment in churches and schools was old hat.

Three years ago, I restored and made positive over 250 half plate glass negatives from the early 1900 s they are accompanied by over 400 lantern slides and a Magic Lantern.....even in the 1960 s  my kids loved a show.....likewise, other family shows from a Slide Projector borrowed from friends...all this has gone sadly.

A friend was recently puzzled by my creation a Blurb Photo-Book, manly as an Archive for me.......After I realised that Digital Storage might let us down one day....After all, where have all those Floppy Discs gone?.....and the CD-Rom is going the same way.

FUJI

[Black Pearl]

To a degree we still do this.

When we come back from a family holiday I'll typically put some images on a USB stick to take to my mums where we'll watch them on her large TV. As I rarely if ever print anything this is the only way for her to see what we and her grandkids go up to and while is lacks some of the 'magic' involved in setting up a slide projector and closing the curtains it still does a great job. If we have days/weekends away and there are less shots I load them to an iPad to take round and we'll sit over that so she can see what the boys have been up to - in recent years they will have taken a few shots so I'll include those and get them involved. 

[ChrisLumix]

If you gather around a decent size computer screen and use some slideshow software (or just Preview on a Mac), the backlit nature of the screen reproduces the effect of transparencies quite well.

[Phil]

It hit me before Xmas that I wasn't really achieving anything with my photography, the only only place I was posting them is here on TIPF, and only very occasionally on Farcebook. So I made the decision to print my images, just 6x4 for albums like back in' day, I wait until I've a couple of hundred then wing them off to the printers.