An ode to the 4 x 4 Photo Print

 Call me old fashioned.

Go ahead, I'm waiting.

Thanks. 

That out of the way, I will confess how I become nostalgic when I see an old 4 x 4 inch photo. There is something about it that takes me back to my childhood. Back in the 1970's the Kodak Instamatic camera was the weapon of choice for most middleclass South African families, and mine was no exception. I can't see my dad being the photographer. It is not his scene. So I'm going to assume my mother was the reason for the collection of 4 x 4's in the four or five photo albums that formed part of my childhood.

Later years the Instamatic was upgraded to a later model of Instamatic and the prints turned from a 4 x 4 into a 4 x 6, but the essence remained.

My brother managed to salvage a lot of the old photos, bless his soul. He also happen to scan said photos and shared it via the cloud to the entire family. 

Me and my Dad - Circa 1976

The old photos are grainy, but it is funny how it brings back grainy memories. My mother was no photographer, but the point and shoot Instamatic did not mind. It just churned out the photos. 

Me and my Grandparents - Circa 1975

I remember the 4 sided flash that rotated on top of the camera. Single use (or 4 in this case) and then you threw it away. We rarely took photos in less than favorable light conditions because the flash was, lets just say, inadequate for the novice photographer who did not understand that light intensity on goes so far.

My two grandmothers during a family holiday
Early 1980's

Years later, I have come to appreciate these photos. I was too young to remember when most of these were taken. Only snippets of memories, if any.

The snow in Spring in South Africa I can remember. It was the first time I have ever seen snow. Thank you Instamatic (and mom).

Snow in South Africa - A first for me and my sister
September 1981

Family holidays were always fun. My mom capturing this one of my Dad. He wanted to walk down to the beach with us, but was not properly dressed for the occasion (1989, I think). OK,  granted, this is not a 4 x 4, but you have to admit, it is a good one.

And then there were the school-days. 

Me on my first day of school. 1981.

And me in my final year of school - 1992 (complete with light leaks)

And here I am now, a lifetime later, looking at these photos and thinking that it would be nice to be able to recreate these type of photos. Because I want to.

Friday past was an day off for me. I grabbed the camera (actually two cameras) and headed off to Temple Bar down in Dublin City. Sunday was St. Patrick's day and the area was crawling with tourists and landlords paining the place green. Got a couple of shots, which I will share sometime. During post I decided to go all retro and grainy on them. 

I rather like this one. In retrospect, and to be true to the 4x4 theme, I should desaturate the image. I might do a couple of desaturated ones and see if I like it. But in this case the red wall just works. And it needs to pop, in my opinion.

This photo was taken on my EOS1000D with a Nifty Fifty. The max resolution on this camera is 10MP, and I probably lost about 20% of that with cropping. So getting to a grainy look was not that difficult.

For the picture below I used my Powershot, that has a 20MP resolution. Different story here. Had to crank up the grain strength quite substantially to get the effect. Once again, may need some desaturation, but the jury is still out on that one.

All in all, I am quite happy with these two images as an ode to the 4 x 4 Print. I may explore this further, you never know...