Photographing the past

Wrote a blog post about my time at the Western Colleges Consortium. I realised how few photographs I have of my time there. Did find this one of the filing cabinets in 2004 with the big format printer on top.

filing cabinets

Oh, that’s a fax machine next to the cabinets.

I didn’t really capture what I did back then in photographs. I didn’t really do as much photography back then as I do now. Part of the reason is I am taking more photographs now, but the second reason was back in 2004, a mobile phone was for making phone calls and sending texts. You didn’t really take photographs with a phone; you used a camera. I did have a camera in 2004, actually I used two, a Canon digital SLR and a small Sony Cybershot. Both actually took good photographs (well not in low light).

Checking the EXIF data of the filing cabinet photograph I realised that this was the first time I took a photograph with my then new Sony Cybershot. That explains the weird shot. Or so I thought, it appears I have a number of Sony Cybershot photographs with a DSC00001 file name. Suspect that the numbering was reset when you either deleted the photographs from the Memory Stick or used a different stick.

In comparison in 2004 I have 1062 photographs in my Mac photos app. In 2024 I took 4517 photographs. This year I have taken less, but in 2024 I did a photo a day which usually mean me taking a lot more photographs.

Of course, before digital, using film in the 1990s and (very) early 2000s, I would probably take three or four rolls of film, with 36 photographs on each roll.

Digital Cameras are back baby…

Meerkat at Bristol Zoo.
Meerkat at Bristol Zoo taken with a Sony DCR-PC110E

According to a BBC report, digital cameras back in fashion after online revival.

Digital cameras from the early 2000s are becoming must-have gadgets for many young people because of a burgeoning trend online. And in the past 12 months, videos with the hashtag #digitalcamera have amassed more than 220 million views on TikTok.

…and to think I still consider this *new* technology! 

One of my favourite photographs, which was taken with a Sony Cybershot Digital Camera in 2004.

My first digital camera was HP PhotoSmart digital camera, this 0.3MP camera used proprietary memory cards, didn’t have a LCD on the back, went through batteries real fast and as for picture quality, well it left a lot to be desired, though outside shots weren’t too bad!

Houses of Parliament taken with the HP Photosmart

There is no way to view pictures on the camera, so you needed to upload them to a computer first.

Since then I used various digital cameras, including other HP PhotoSmart cameras. I then moved over to Sony Cybershot cameras, and I had about three of them.  I still have one that I use now and again, though I seem to have lost the card reader for Sony’s proprietary Memory Sticks which the cameras used.

I also had a Canon EOS 300D for a while and I did think it took some really good photographs.

Hand sculpture
Sculpture taken with a Canon EOS 300D

I bought a Canon EOS 400D back in 2007 and I still use on a regular basis today. 

It’s not very good in low light conditions, this is when I use my iPhone instead. Today I take nearly all my photographs using an iPhone.

coast
Spanish coastline panorama taken with an iPhone 13

I am thinking though of getting a replacement for my EOS 400D