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Thread: Before digital cameras exsisted

  1. #1
    New Member Diana1029's Avatar
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    Before digital cameras exsisted

    I was just wondering now we can take lots of pictures of ourselves dressed weather in only a thong or fully dresses and make up on but we're the only ones who see it but how did crossdressers took pictures when you would have to take it to a studio to get it revealed? ( I started dressing once digital photography excisted so I just wondered how it was in the past) taking into acount that the guy from the studio would see it

  2. #2
    Silver Member Loni's Avatar
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    lots of people take photos now, but they never see the light of day the good old photo books no longer exist.
    but neither do the grainy photos of big-foot, nessie, or the ufo's.
    with in 10 years you will no longer be able to buy chemical film, so real cameras will go the way of the junk drawer. just like the Polaroid did.

  3. #3
    the happy camper
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    I can tell you, it was a real pain when I was young, having to sit perfectly still while the guy painted your portrait.... And those whalebone hoops! Ugh.

    (My real answer is that I didn't take pics back then. No way was I going to risk being outed by a photo. A big 'thank you' to the folks who invented digital cameras!)

  4. #4
    Female Illusionist! docrobbysherry's Avatar
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    I began dressing with a film camera! I definitely hesitated before taking my pics to the local drug store to get them developed! But, I looked so BAD back then, he probably thot I was prepping for a Halloween party!
    U can't keep doing the same things over and over and expect to enjoy life to the max. When u try new things, even if they r out of your comfort zone, u may experience new excitement and growth that u never expected.

    Challenge yourself and pursue your passions! When your life clock runs out, you'll have few or NO REGRETS!

  5. #5
    Gold Member Cynthia Anne's Avatar
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    No way! No pictures of me before Polaroid! I still have the pictures of me takin' with a polaroid while wearing a dress!
    If you don't like the way I'm livin', you just leave this long haired country girl alone:

  6. #6
    Complex Lolita...
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sophie86
    I can tell you, it was a real pain when I was young, having to sit perfectly still while the guy painted your portrait.... And those whalebone hoops! Ugh.
    [SIZE="2"]Why didn’t you just give the painter a photo to work from? [/SIZE]

    Quote Originally Posted by docrobbysherry
    I began dressing with a film camera! I definitely hesitated before taking my pics to the local drug store to get them developed!
    [SIZE="2"]I learned to develop my own film in order to take (or make) my own crossdressing pictures. In this case, necessity was the mother of my photographic knowledge. These days, my enlarger is in the closet (where I used to be), and I haven’t loaded film onto reels in the dark for over five years. I even learned to develop color film, not an easy task – my avatar is one of my better efforts...
    [/SIZE]

  7. #7
    Aspiring Member
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    The possibilty existed for anyone since 1839 to take and process one's own pictures. granted it was cumbersome making a platinum print, but the quality was unlike anything you've seen in the digital age. Simply put, home darkrooms have been around since forever and film will be with us for some time to come. While digital is better now, there is nothing like an 8x10 color negative. Large format photography is still a viable profession and there are a number of journals devoted to it..

  8. #8
    Member Starr's Avatar
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    I started out using polaroids in the early 70's then I started doing some pro work and got my own B/W dark room set up as well.. did a lot of things developing and printing my own stuff. I wanted some color photos so I did a roll and took them to the drug store and had them sent off and developed. They would develop a lot of things that most of us would never think about. Remember most were done on a machine so people didn't look at every photo as it developed. I am sure they did a quality check and content check but that was just a quick look over the stack of photos.

  9. #9
    Senior Member Jennifer in CO's Avatar
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    before our fire there were TONS of photos of me around...in the garage..where the fire was. Actually, 99.9% of them I'm glad are gone but there are some I really would like to see again. Like one with my grand parents and me and I was in a wedding dress when I was 14 (long story - no I wasn't getting married), or my wife and I on vacation in Corpus Christi two years after I transitioned...two beautiful girls on on the beach...or my wife and I holding our daughter when we brought her home from the hospital after her birth...lost memories on film

    Jenn

  10. #10
    Member anonymousinmaryland's Avatar
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    I can tell you, it was a real pain when I was young, having to sit perfectly still while the guy painted your portrait.... And those whalebone hoops! Ugh.

    I enjoyed your original answer, Sophie.

  11. #11
    the happy camper
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frédérique View Post
    [SIZE="2"]my avatar is one of my better efforts...
    [/SIZE]
    All this time I had no idea that was you. I thought you were just using a GG pic that you liked!

  12. #12
    Junior Member Princess_of_Hckloins's Avatar
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    After I came "out" in 2003, I used a disposable 35mm camera for those occasions I needed a picture since my real 35mm (point and shoot type) had bit the dust. Pics were usually done at events where someone else could take them. I didn't get a digital camera until late in 2004. As for Polaroids I remember them well, my parents used one that did B&W photos in the early 70's. They got a 35mm camera later that decade.
    [SIZE="3"]Haley[/SIZE]

  13. #13
    Girl next door Cristi's Avatar
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    From the mid-70s on there were polaroids. Not cheap (I think about $1 per pic) but worth it. Sadly, polaroids don't last forever and everything I took back then has long faded away.

    I also did my own black and while. I took rolls and rolls of black and while photos and developed the film myself. I didn't print much of it, but at least did 'contact prints' of the rolls so I could look at the tiny pictures... sometimes with a magnifying glass!

    I took a VERY limited number of pics with real color film, but was careful to not show my face in them, and have them developed/printed by a lab far away not by a local shop.

    Plus, there was slide film. You still had to send it out to be developed, but nobody had to look at it during the process and you could be pretty sure that nobody in the drug store would bother to browse through your photos before you got a chance to pick them up.

    Yup, you young kids have it good....
    Last edited by Cristi; 06-16-2011 at 09:54 AM.
    In a society in which it is a moral offense to be different from your neighbor your only escape is never to let them find out.
    -- Robert Heinlein

  14. #14
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    Ah yes, the days of film. If you look for Pro Labs they still develop film. Nothing better than film negs. I still shoot medium format when i want a quality image. Sorry folks, unless you want to spend 8 or 10 k on a digital then film still makes a better blown up image than any digital. And yes the labs have forced us pro shooters into digital thus making everyone think that they are a photographer, you can tell the difference when you see the image of a shooter that learned film and went to digital compared to an image on a digital that is set for stupid proof (auto focus and exposure).

  15. #15
    Aspiring Member aprilgirl's Avatar
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    Oh it was a challenge. My solution was the trusty Polaroid and thin curtain rod to snap the picture. Cristi is correct in saying that it was $1 per pic and you didn't dare blink when you posed. That very well may explain why most of my photos back then appear as though I just downed a pot of espresso.

    The polaroid was nice in regards to having immediate feedback and at the time not dealing with the concern of developers seeing your pictures. By the nineties I no longer cared and dropped off and picked up the film with no regrets. It was expensive and I probably expedited some Kodak executives to an early retirement.

    I give you exhibit A, circa 1988.
    Attached Images Attached Images

  16. #16
    GerriJerry Gerrijerry's Avatar
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    What is a digital camera. I use this camera that you put the film in from the back and take the photo. You remove the cap over a hole in the front. Count to three cover the hole and then take out the film from the back. Then you got to this dark room and put it in this stuff and there you go a photo is made. You young girls have it made with these new fangeled contraptions.
    TO OVER WEIGHT TO POST A PHOTO, MY wife tells me I look like I am pregnant

  17. #17
    Adventuress Kate Simmons's Avatar
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    Yep, that's the way it was but then the Betamovie camera came out and I could make actual home movies of myself dancing en femme. I felt like a pioneer of sorts, Sigh!, those were the days my friend. Now it's a helluva lot easier with the technology.
    Second star to the right and straight on till morning

  18. #18
    Life is for having fun. suzy1's Avatar
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    April, you look so cute in that picture! And you still do by the way.
    I never took pictures until I joined this site. Then I soon rushed out and got a digi one.
    It then took about two weeks to pluck up the courage to post it on here.
    But I needn’t have worried. You were all so kind to me with your coments.

  19. #19
    Carole carhill2mn's Avatar
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    I tried taking photos of myself using an SLR camera and timer. The worst part was getting your photos back and seeing
    that very few, if any, were any good. I often took my photos to be developed and picked them up while en femme but not always.
    Hugs, Carole

  20. #20
    Senior Member 5150 Girl's Avatar
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    I had my own B&W darkroom as well. I sat the camera on a tripod, pointed it at a mirior, and triggerd the shutter with the bulb atachment.

  21. #21
    Aspiring Member dilane's Avatar
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    The first time I had pictures of Diane developed, I'd taken about 25 film shots of me in various outfits and poses. I asked for proofs (small contact prints of each picture). When I picked them up, the lady looked at the pictures and said "She's very pretty!"

    For years after that I just developed them, since my friends and I looked ok on film; nothing glaringly amiss.

  22. #22
    Senior Age Member sissystephanie's Avatar
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    Since I started crossdressing before many of you were born, actually in 1938, I did have pictures taken with film cameras. And had pictures developed at a studio. Never once had any comments, since most of the time I cut my own head off in the picture. Even if I didn't do that, I wasn't really recognizable since I was wearing some makeup and a wig! Of course after I got married my dear late wife took lots of pictures! With film cameras!! BTW, I never did have a darkroom of my own!
    Stephanie

    Lady on the outside, but man underneath!

  23. #23
    Rust Member trisha59's Avatar
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    Lots of home darkrooms back in the old days. We also used mailers where you would mail your film into Kodak and they would mail the prints back to you.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC][SIZE="3"]Wild Women Never Get The Blues[/SIZE]

  24. #24
    Crystal VioletJourney's Avatar
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    You have to remember that before digital pictures there also was no online community to share the pictures with... I dunno about any of you but I pretty much only take pictures to show off here!

  25. #25
    the happy camper
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    Quote Originally Posted by VioletJourney View Post
    You have to remember that before digital pictures there also was no online community to share the pictures with...
    The online community is older than you think. I was on PLATO back in the mid-80s.

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