How Holiday Photos have Developed over the Years

The first photograph was taken in 1826 and things have changed quite a bit since then. Even in the last ten years or so, many of us have gone from taking our holiday snaps to a shop for developing to printing them off ourselves at home. And what a relief that is!

Photography as a hobby really took off in the 50s and many people began snapping up cameras to take with them on holiday. The Kodak Brownie camera was a popular choice, especially with teenagers. A flash attachment could be fitted to the top to take photos in the dark.

The first holiday photos were black and white, or rather dark brown and light brown. Colour photography was only available for professional photographers and tourists didn’t start snapping in colour until the 60s.

Slide projectors were a really popular way to show off your new colour holiday photos in the swinging sixties. After a holiday, people would gather their friends around their living room and show them the slides. After 50 or so slides, some of the friends would usually remember that they’d left the oven on and have to make a sharp exit.

In the 70s, the Kodak Instamatic was the most popular camera choice. The film came in a pre-loaded cartridge that you could remove, take to the photo shop and collect your pictures in seven days time.

A popular alternative to this was the Polaroid Instant camera. For the first time, people could see their holiday photos within minutes. You just had to point, snap, and the picture popped straight out of the bottom of the camera. Within five minutes (and a lot of shaking) the picture developed in front of your very eyes.

With the 90s came digital photography, and this really changed our attitudes to holiday photos. Now, pics were instantly visible on the back of the camera. If your subject happened to be blinking or you noticed an unfortunately placed pot plant growing out of someone’s head, no problem. You could just take another.

One major advantage of digital photography over print is that we can print our photos at home now. No need to take to make two trips to a shop to drop off and collect the images. We can just connect the camera to a computer with a printer and we’re away. A printer is a worthwhile investment for anyone with a camera, as home-printing is so much cheaper and will pay for itself in no time.

There is however, one disadvantage to the development of digital photography. Far too many people seem to leave their photos on their computers where they stay hidden forever. This is such a shame. In twenty years time you won’t be showing the next generation your computer, will you? So if you haven’t already, get yourself a printer, get those holiday photos printed off, and put them in the albums and frames that they deserve.

[thethe-image-slider name=”Shearings”]

This article was provided by Shearings Holidays.