The Lost Images- 1963-1970.

I have a huge collection of photos, digital images, negatives in my collection.
I started taking pictures in 1970 on a Kodak Retina 35mm camera, a Yashica Minister D 35mm rangefinder camera and then a Pentax Spotmatic 2 SLR.

When I look back on my photography there is a definite gap in the collection of family photos.
I have all the images my Dad, my Father in law, and wife's uncle took.

Most of them anyway.

When I look back at my own photos there is a distinct gap of pics between 1963 and 1970.

An most of my generation would probably say the same.

Then there was a surge in the popularity of Photography when people started buying the famous Kodak Instamatic.

Instamatic Pic Darwin 1971

According to wikipedia the Instamatic went into production from 1963 onwards but from my memory it wasn't until the early 70's they came into widespread use.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instamatic#Mid-1970s_to_late_1980s

So the people of today are hugely privileged to be able to capture their lives with their phones.

There are heaps of the instamatics available on the used market these days but very hard to get the film cartridges.

See my previous article on these cameras.

https://geoffthompsonsblog.blogspot.com.au/2014/10/social-networking-with-kodak-instamatic.html

Social Networking with The Kodak Instamatic

My interest in photography really took off in the 1970's .
First with a Yashica Minister D 35mm Rangefinder camera then with a Pentax Spotmatic SLR.
Prior to the 70's I belonged to a generation that almost missed out on photography.
Last Saturday night my wife and I went to a dinner in Renmark to celebrate 100 years of the Renmark Hospital.
It  was a time to catch up and reminisce with nursing friends from the 60's and 70's.
We took an old photo album of snapshots to share.
The other girls all had lots of pics in envelopes.
The wonderful thing is just about all of them were the square prints of the Kodak Instamatic.
This camera took the world by storm in the 1960's and 70's.
A simple cartridge loading  smaller  version of the Box cameras of old.
The basic ones had fixed focus,fixed shutter speed and a basic non changeable standard lens.
A flash cube could be fitted with 4 flashes per cube.
They took colour and black and white negative film and colour slides or transparencies.
The results were amazing given such limitations.
The more sophisticated models had zone focussing and adjustable aperture.
Other camera manufactures such as Agfa also produced them.
Eventually they were overtaken by fixed focus 35mm cameras, rangefinder compact 35mm cameras and 35mm slr cameras.
There would have been no photos produced at that dinner by the 60's generation, but for the Kodak Instamatic.
Our parents before us had been more into photography than we were.
I guess there was such a lot of just living in the 60's.
Music was more the in thing than photography.
Every one had portable record players.
Well the social networking was really happening last Saturday night I can assure you.
All because of the Kodak Instamatic.
If you have one of these cameras you will barely find an unused cartridge anywhere but  it is possible to load spent cartridges with 35mm film.