Monday 2 May 2011

Menton nostalgia - # 60/2011


Colour film was almost non existant and a priceless miracle of chemistry in the 1930s and 40s. When I was a child I remember my excitement looking at Mother's old snaps and her showing me her little box of photo colouring pencils.  I was entranced by the delicate colouring and the magical effect it had on the photo. I was eager to try it and remember the thrill of quick and realtively easy success, achieving a powerful effect for little effort.

This Menton street scene seemed ripe for some "creative" treatment, so I simply clicked on "Creative - Aged Photo" in Lightroom, and suddenly realised that in a micro-second, with one click, I had more or less achieved what my Mother did while passing the winter hours, looking through her photos, lovingly colouring them and listening to a grammophone record or the wireless: no television in those days!! It existed but was, like colour film, a priceless marvel of technology yet to be widely available.

3 comments:

  1. A great story around this photo. Yes, these were different times...

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  2. ...oh and I forgot to say how well suited to the photo the post processing is.

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  3. Oh, I've seen some of my Nanna's photos that look coloured in - I didn't realize they actually did them with pencils (I'm not quite sure how I thought they did it).

    That's a word you don't hear much anymore - wireless (well, not in that context).

    Look at those beautiful street lights - do they still work?

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