Pixellating into sepia tones

Take a pic, instantly upload it and the entire social world is ready to access it at their finger tips. So easy it has become hasn’t it? The thrill of this 'instantness' sure does get one on a high, and I vouch it aloud by all means. The film rolls are passé; having died a rapid death with technology being digitized by the hour.

Having decided to rewind a little bit through this post, the old world charm of feeling a photograph is timeless. I still recall that our first family cam was a brand called Agfa; luckily, when I googled out to check if the name still existed amongst the current camera producing companies, the name did feature! The camera had a black coarse matte surface finish with an orange button to click. During festivities, my relatives would source for the best of photographers within the family. At the behest of the entire family, this trusted family member, who is supposed to have a thorough know-how of the one and only ‘camera’ that the family owns, dons the hat of the chief event photographer giving a complete coverage. Then the arduous process of giving the camera to a colour-lab and getting them processed ensues. One still had the patience to wait for them to be delivered; for we had the assurance of a gratifying experience at the end of the day. What more, how delightful it used to be when we hold the film negatives right up into the sky and choose what pictures needed to go into print. The quality of the prints back then is commendable too. And how could one forget the tedious process of meticulously tucking each photo into the transparent plastic provision in the complimentary albums provided by the lab?!

As a child, I have had several memorable trips to my paternal uncle’s home wherein our primary pass time used to be that of photo-viewing. He was our official caretaker of family photos; however under one condition: we could not take back home any photographs from his collection; he was strict about that. As a child I used to frown at his sternness, but now I definitely know why.

Despite all the opulence to share and upload instant pictures now, when someone fishes out a sepia-toned picture from their collection and has it uploaded, it’s a wholesome feeling. We suddenly get chasing the route of those pics and would want to know where these pics were all the while! Of course their smart-phone counterparts are here to stay; albeit their charm easily fizzles out. While clicking pictures in the past were reserved for specified occasions, now, we have countless reasons to keep clicking. What more, we have the word selfie (a self shot on a mobile camera) that has even made it all the way to the Oxford Dictionary! So giving all those instagram shots a break, it’s a good feeling once in a while to rewind and soak in some malarum ninaivugal (evergreen memories)...