After they have spent, close to 10 years in my closet, I finally retrieved my old friends. My 6 year old nephew, picked it up, pointed, released the shutter and immediately looked at me, looked at the back of the camera, flipped it upside-down and looked at me again. "What happened to the picture I took...there is no screen". So here i am explaining while doing a small "show and tell"... this is how you open it and insert the film. This where you advance each slide just before you set your shutter speed and time of exposure in order to capture your object under certain conditions, like the amount of lighting present. This is important, in order to achieve the most perfect, the most unique exposure. After you are done with the roll of film, you take it to a lab where they develop it and print out the photos you took. He gives the camera back to me, goes and comes back from his room, snaps a photo with his small resolution kiddie camera he got like 2 years ago... points in the same direction he did with my camera...there is a flash and the back screen lights up "... You see!!! Here it is.... did you see how easy..." There was a nervous laugh and a long sigh, because they have closed the store I bought my cameras and where I got my prints developed. Now, I have bought film on-line, but I have to find a new place to get it developed. You see, I learned to do it my self when I was 7-8 years old in a after school program in the 80's back in the communist Poland. I have a great appreciation of the process. I recall the smell of the chemicals in the dark room and the hours spent there after hours of trying to capture those perfect exposures. All of it has been replaced by "did you see...how easy..." in the matter of few years. What a sad commentary!
