Paper Photographs

[Danielle Gee]

While posting to another thread an idea for a new one occured to me.

For you girls old enough to remeber when photography involved having a roll of film developed , how did you deal with it? Did you take any photos then? How did you have them developed? Were you fearful of someone in the process looking at them and possibly recognizing you?

Here's my story.......I did take many photos with my Minolta 35m camera. Tho it had a timer, I preferred to use a rubber squeeze bulb to trip the shutter. this alowed me time to compose the shot better. I had hour upon hour of pleasure taking these photos:daydreaming:

....Then came the developing:eek: I was so paranoid that I researched untill I found a store that sent their film to a far away lab for processing. Driving 30 miles from my home to this store, No Problem!!

Then I would fill out the envelope that held the film....Of course I used a false name and phone number.:heehee:

When I picked up the finished photos I would peer into the faces of the clerks...Was that a smirk on her face?.......Was she supressing a laugh?

Then I would usually get to the car and excitedly tear open the package of 24 photos:eek: of that number at least 15 16 were doomed to the trash (out of focus- out of frame - beard shadow highlighted by too much flash..yada yada yada)

Ah but the remaining one:)..they made the entire process worthwhile!!

Hasn't digital photography made life much simpler for us girls?

I'd love to hear your stories on this issue (if you'ed old enough to have dncountered it)

Love Danielle XOXO

[NathalieX66]

One word...........POLAROID.

[Roberta Lynn]

I had my own home darkroom for developing black and white film and printing photos back then.
I took a few pictures of myself dressed but I think they were all destroyed during one of my purges. I might still have some of the negatives I just don't know were the are. oops

[lingerieLiz]

Yes it was hard to do back in those days. Interesting that of the few good pictures I got they were stolen. The other thing was that I had a painting that several people thought was of me as a girl. Wish I had thought of it.

[Joanie_Shakti]

I did both the Polaroid and black and white darkroom stuff. I took a few more Polaroids of myself though, than I did the darkroom stuff as it was easier to avoid detection.

[Kendra (Tx)]

Before I got my digital...I got my 35mm film developed at Walgreens One Hour Photo...( Local drug store/quickie mart/etc here in TX..) One time my "partner in crime" Emmy had gone to pick up the 5 rolls of developed film just around the corner from where I worked ( We'd just got back from a "girls weekend out" from Houston ) and of course there were a LOT of pics...:heehee: The "kid" at the photo counter had asked Em who was that "lady" in the pictures....She was sooooo "hot" .. He was asking if "she was single and close by...Emmy being the mischevious one that she is told the kid..."Oh her??? That's my brother...He's a truck driver..."..She said the look on the kids face was priceless....A post script to this story is...Several months after...I had walked into the same store in "ugly brother mode" to get a few things.... the registers up front were packed, so the manager said I could go to the photo department register to be checked out...little did I know..It was that very same kid....He was giving me "once over" like he was trying to place me but couldn't.... :battingeyelashes: He'd have never believed it....

http://kendra954.com

[Rachel Morley]

One word...........POLAROID.
EXACTLY! .... are you crazy? ... back in those days (which is a very long time ago I might add) in a bizarre crazy impetuous moment where I wanted a pic, I always used my old Polaroid :)

[azcdinhose]

I used to send them out in the mail to a place called York Labs. Part of me wishes I still had some of them, and a part of me is glad they were "lost in the fire".

[june2cd]

So far thats the only pictures I have of me is from my 35MM. I to take them to walgreens to get done. I have walk in there and do get some looks but I have dicieded what the hell if they can not handle thats their problem not mine. I have had the camara for over 20 years and I have 4 lens for it.I know how to work it and do not know much about the new ones.

[lingerieLiz]

I had forgotten the old Polaroids in the mirror shots.

[linnea]

I took a lot of 35mm pictures by using the timer on my old camera. Then I took them to several different processing locations, in grocery stores, drug stores, department stores. I was never questioned, and I always got all my pictures back.

[bridget jones]

Oh yeah,I used a Polaroid. Instant pics of me,sissy,girly,and very pretty.

[Joanie_Shakti]

I had forgotten the old Polaroids in the mirror shots.

Mine was an SX-70, which has a self-timer function.

[windycissy]

Ahh, you take me back...I had a 35mm camera with a timer and a tripod when I lived in Chicago, and the big drugstores there were very impersonal, you'd drop the film into a slot and pick it up from a rack sorted by the initial of your last name, so you wouldn't have to face the person who developed it. I was a naughty girl one time and took some risque pictures, and when I got home and opened the envelope I found a big "X" across the offensive parts!

[Cristi]

I shot black and white and developed my own film at home in the bathroom, but did NOT have a darkroom. So I'd end up with lots of negatives but no prints.

I did manage to get contact sheets a few times while in the darkroom for other things, but was always too cautious about them being found.

I still have many unprinted negatives around. I guess now I should scan them directly to a the PC. It would be a blast to see the young me (wearing some outfits I've probably forgotten all about)!

[dilane]

Oh yes, I remember those days ...

I once shot a couple rolls, and not knowing which were good, I had them printed up as black and white "proofs" (small thumbnails). I emulated the poses I saw in catalogs and advertisements.

I remember the lady who gave them to me (I was in drab -- this was before I ever set foot out of the house) saying, "She's beautiful!" Meanwhile I was paranoid that she had put two and two together.

[Emily01]

gosh, all of these responses strike a chord! i so remember the frustration to get two or three decent shots per roll, and the cost of film and developing.....sheeesh! i took 35mm shots on a self-timer, usually used 400 ASA Kodak film and i'd drop them off at the little developing huts - drive up and drive off - heart pounding like a herd of elephants! great thread, thanks!:thumbsup::thumbsup:

[Jocelyn Quivers]

One word...........POLAROID.

Same here, too bad I can't remember what I actually did with pictures which looked absolutely horrible.

[Daintre]

I always sent my 35mm film to a lab in a different city both pictures and slides. I still have a great many photos and a lot of slides, as well as a few super 8 films, Good gosh, I still have all the cameras the slide projector and projector as well.

[Fab Karen]

Film? Fixed focus lenses? Waiting forever to find out if the pics were even halfway decent ( not morally )? Rotary phones, phone booths, bakery home-delivery trucks, spiders ( a music-listening product )? Nope, don't know anything about those things.:whistling:

[Keely]

I took 35mm slides and processed them at home.
Sure wish I still had some of them.

I did take a few color prints and had them developed at the drug store. I think I still have some of those. I'll try to find them.

[cdinmd206]

I took some of myself once using the timed exposure setting on my old 35 mm camera. After the second exposure the tripod fell over and my camera was destroyed. When I told my now ex-wife what happened she said the tripod didn't fall over - the camera killed itself rather than let that image get to the film again!!!!!

[pernille d]

a bit different imput
. i those days i did not take many photos but i used to work in a photo store with a mini lab , believe me have seen much worse and more embarracing things than us ladies . being the youngest and trainee i always got to serve those type of customers when they came to collect .it really did not bother me , and infact i think it was more akward for the other shop staff than the customer .

a funny extra note
the worst thing for me was that female freind of mine took some normal photos of me at a party , then on the end of the film took some hardcore pictures of her and boyfriend but with no faces showing , the day she deliverd them for developing i was not working the machine so my co workers got to saw them , and i never lived the episode down as they where sure it was me in the photos ,:)

[Frédérique]

For you girls old enough to remeber when photography involved having a roll of film developed , how did you deal with it? Did you take any photos then? How did you have them developed? Were you fearful of someone in the process looking at them and possibly recognizing you?

I learned how to develop my own film for reasons of privacy and convenience. I miss doing it, but digital photography makes everything very easy (except perhaps long time exposures). Speaking of exposure, self-development made nude photography possible, so I took up the challenge (I’m sure that’s why I taught myself photo-processing in the first place)…:o

Of course, when you’re a crossdresser, it’s easy to photograph yourself and control where the pictures go (or who sees them). I keep my old negatives close at hand at all times, unmarked, in secret boxes. My old enlarger light source (a rudimentary computer) gave out, so I now use a scanner to digitize the old films and “visit” myself from time to time… :battingeyelashes:

Isn't it amazing that the era of film photography is over?

[Scotty]

Somewhere in this house is a printed out digital photo of me in my skirt playing a guitar...

ah the good old days....Mama don't take my kodachrome away, mama don't take my kodachrome away.....

I'm not old enough for a kodachrome but I still have a FULL 35mm setup...

[Janet Bern]

What an interesting comment on photos. I did the same thing for hours taking pictures with a timer on a 35MM camera. I thought they would be great and they really showed every fault I had and I really wasnt very good at the makeup. When I sent out the pictures I went to a drug store a few miles away. When I got them back, I went to the car and opened about 30 of them. Not very good. Only a couple of them were even passable. Rats
The ones on here are from "Glamour Shots" a photo chain in malls
Janet

[missygatv]

I had raided lingerie drawers well before my teens, and continued to "borrow" girlfriend's panties and bras every now and then, but did not seriously crossdress until I hit 30 or so. By the time I got divorced at 34, Polaroids were sort of winding down and I searched endlessly for a camera with self timer to no avail (circa 1984). They had the cheap stuff at the drugstores only.

So one day I had a makeover with another CD'er who ran a website (in the early days) in So. Florida. I bought a wig and some other stuff from her and we both went out to a local bar in FLL for a drink.

That night she took a Polaroid of me, which I kept for years until I got remarried and purged everything I had. It's been over 10 years since that and I wish I would have kept it. I remember the dress very clearly and it was a white and black herringbone jumper dress. I was wearing a black turtle neck bodysuit underneath and black stockings. Very, very, very cute.

After that came digital photography and the rest is history. I did have a full 35mm outfit and even dark room stuff, but never did take a picture dressed back then.

My present collection goes back to 2002, but a lot of that stuff is just me dressed without makeup, etc. Not fit for public consumption. I am, however, working on getting that body back!!! :)

[aprilgirl]

Going back 20-25 years ago I exclusively used a Polaroid camera. Mine did'nt have a timer which made self photography a challenge and adventure. I would arrange textbooks to steady the camera in place and used a long, thin curtain rod to trigger the shutter. I still have hundreds of photos from those days, most of which has my left arm extended out! The film got a little too expensive ($10 for 10 prints) so I switched over to a 35mm. To develop I would use stores that had help yourself drop off and pick up, always using another name.

[Alicia Grey]

When but a youth. Photography beckoned to me and I followed. My two great loves CD and photography. No photos have survived the many moves since then.

Being an unreformed techie I do love the new digital age, and the cameras are far superior to the old film ones in several aspects.

[Loni]

I was and still am camera shy.

[Julogden]

I did my own black and white darkroom work, developed the film and made prints. For color, I shot slides/transparencies, developed the film and mounted the slides myself. If I wanted a color print from my slides, I took them to the local photo kiosk and had prints made, hoping that the person in the booth wouldn't figure out that it was me in the photos, but the slides went right into an envelope, so it's doubtful that they ever looked at them.

Carol

[StarrOfDelite]

I haven't checked them out in several years, but within the past ten years there were "special" photo labs, mostly in big cities on the 'East Coast or in LA, which would develop XXX rated photos, so I'm sure that something as harmless as a few G rated cross dressing film rolls wouldn't have been a problem.

A Google search should show them up fairly quickly, if they are still in business.

[chris80]

Since 1980 I sent the film off to a large lab for D/P. no problem.
More recently i took the film to a local multiple photo shop rather than to a small photo shop where I was known.

[Barbara Jo]

The memories.....
I used to take photos with my old Mionolta 101 with the self timer and squeeze bulb also. I still have them packed away but, I haven't use them in years. :)

I simply used to take the film to another town where no one at the developer would know me.
Any storys about people vieving the pics you took were probably true as I knew peope who freely admitted to doing that.
Back then, they saw it all and unlees it was grossly ilegal/immoral no one cared. They just laughed at the photos

[Nicola2876]

I remember taking a few pics of myself at the end of a roll of film and when I went to pick up the photos the lady working there was my mother's best friend's daughter! She just said "Hi!" so I guess she didn't see them. I had a cheeky smile on my face as I walked out tho!