Thursday, January 31, 2019

Movement into still photos

I've already posted some old home movies changed into still photos.
But I'd love to share this one series with you, as prompted by Sepia Saturday this week.

Home movies/transformed again (Repost from January 29, 2015)

My dad started taking home movies in the 40s, with a spring wound Keystone projector.  It took 16 mm rolls of film, but when the roll was finished you'd take it out and insert it again and run it through the camera again, getting two 8-mm runs.  Always doing the switch in a closet so the film didn't get exposed, of course.

We had mainly black and white photos, but there are some surprising ones in color.

My dear son, Russ, took the originals and had Walmart's genius people put them into a DVD and then showed them to all my offspring at my 70th birthday.  It was probably pretty boring, especially with the strange sound background the Walmart guys had added.

So last night I pulled out the video, which hadn't been of any interest for years, and decided it would be nice to transform it into some stills so I could share them (and archive them) here.

Ever try to take pictures of a TV show?  Right...the black bar of death crossed most of the attempts, even when the shot was paused.

No, I didn't want to copy into a video format either.  I may try that sometime, but not yet.

Anyway, out of my attempts, and from the first 12 clips, I did get some good shots, though the originals were a bit fuzzy.  I don't know if this was original resolution, or not having a good TV screen.  And I've since reduced the resolution so I can post them here easily.  Ever notice how long it takes to post 2m photos here?

So I'll give you first a series of clips of my grandparents.





 Ada Swasey Rogers and my grandfather George Elmore Rogers, taken in about 1945.  She was around 59 and he was 68 at that time.





Location is their home in Houston, Texas, which they might have just moved to, as 3 years previously (when I was born) they had lived in San Antonio, TX.

My parents and myself were visiting from Dallas, TX.

Their sons Chauncey and George (my father) were having a good time playing with various cameras, and included catching each other telling stories.  Since the camera wound down after about a minute, they were short stories!  More next time!



I posted a lot more stills from home-movies in the following posts in 2015.

9 comments:

  1. The still photos may have been a bit fuzzy, but it was easy enough to follow the action. I think you did a commendable job! And how wonderful you have those movies recorded!

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  2. Your grandmother looked like she was a feisty woman! just looking at the expression on her face and her non-verbal communication :)))

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  3. I love the interaction, but it sure makes you wonder what your grandmother was talking about. I've made a few stills from home movies and they are never any clearer than what you have shared here.

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  4. What a good idea for the prompt, and you did a great job making the movie reel into stills. I have taken photos from the TV and mostly the pictures turned out. Loved seeing the pictures of your grandparents. Good job.

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  5. I suppose I should have known, but I didn't realize you could make stills from films. Interesting.

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  6. Great images for this weekend's theme! What old films may lack in sound and clarity they make up for in imagination and memory.

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  7. Vibrant Colour !
    A nice idea & effect.
    Bravo!

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  8. Look at you, all techie! My family did not make home movies, so I am jealous that you have a record of people actually MOVING and TALKING, not just photos.

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  9. I was very happy to see in frame three that that was NOT a rolling pin your granny was wielding.

    This was a lot of fun. Thank you for making me smile.

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