Your House is On Fire. Or Floodwaters are Coming. What Do You Take?

[For the Millions of People who Lose Family Photographs Each Year]

It’s happened time and again in times of natural disasters, and every time, the answer is the same, when asked what do you take.  Photographs.

“I’m taking the photographs.  Everything else is replaceable.  Those are not.”

No one is running into the house for the hard drives.  They’re grabbing their parents and grandparents photos, and photo albums and getting them to safety.

I’m hearing more stories of people losing their photos on lost phones or dead hard drives–six people in the last few weeks–to the point that it makes me say come on, what’s it going to take to finally print our photos?

Millions of family photographs are lost each year.

Why are we refusing to spend a dime on prints, when services are readily available?  Too busy or too cheap–neither one gets our photographs printed!

You say you’re one of the ones who triple-backs up everything?  Great!  That’s not everyone.  In fact, it’s mostly no one.  Most people say they want to print their photos, but never do.

Good intentions don’t preserve family history.

What’s it going to take to make folks finally create some hard copies of their photographs?  Because online or a hard drive or a cloud, they really don’t exist.   And we can’t expect with technology changes they will exist in 50-100 years.

A print you can hold in your hand, and run out to the car.  Because it’s real.  It’s physical.

So, why aren’t we printing our photographs?

You can come to me at YourFamilyPhotoAlbums.com, and I’ll help you get them printed.  Or do it yourself through any number of online services.   But, do it!

Or there will be no photographs of this generation for your children or grandchildren’s generation to have of you.

Don’t wait for the fire or flood.

By then, it’ll be too late.

I Ain’t Denny’s!

Not everyone demands top quality from a photographer. But as a professional with 30-years of experience as an award-winning published photojournalist, that’s all I offer. It certainly costs more, but you get the best quality and service.

If you don’t want that, please don’t call me.

I don’t hand over image files because I care that they are finished professionally and look their absolute best–after all, it’s my work. Yet there are many people with cameras who will give you all the images after the shoot, saying, “Do what you want, print them at home, I don’t care. I just like to shoot and walk away.” If that’s what you want, I ain’t your guy.

If you would prefer cheap and quick over professional quality, please don’t contact me. If you don’t see the difference between professional photography and amateurs with a camera and some software presets, I can’t show you.

Just like if you can’t feel the difference between driving a Mercedes and a Kia, I can’t help you. And if you think Denny’s tastes as good as a chef-prepared meal, I’ve probably got nothing for you.

But if you can, expect to get something more delicious than you even imagined! Portfolio: KennethWajda.com – Studio phone: 720.982.9237

A Night at the Pool Hall

Leica M2, 50mm Summarit f1.5, Kodak Tri-X Film

Zucchini Races

Fun little story from the Boulder Labor Day Fair, where they had Zucchini Races–you built your own car to race.  [Leica M2, 50mm Summicron, Ilford HP5 Film]

I Am a Film Photographer

PORTRAITS ON FILM – What’s the difference?

I am proud to be known as a Film Photographer. It’s my passion and what sets me apart from most photographers.

Why use film when digital is so much easier? Who said art has to be easy? And why is easy better?

IT’S ABOUT MAGIC

I shoot film because it’s a little bit dreamy, a little bit romantic, a little bit grainy, a little bit soft, a little bit magical—like a memory. It really is. It’s not completely literal, like digital.

Digital is perfectly sharp and clear, but like a CD is to a real vinyl record, it doesn’t have the same soulfulness, the warmth.

It’s the difference between a home-cooked meal and a microwave dinner. One is simply more satisfying.

Film is something you feel. When you see a portrait made on film, you may not even know why you like it, but you feel it. It’s that’s powerful. It’s emotional. It’s truth.

It’s not Photoshop tricks or Instagram filters. It’s simply truthful.

It’s the difference between portraits of movie stars in the 1960s and 1970s versus today. That difference is film!

When you want a little bit of that magic, and demand the very best for your family, schedule a genuine film portrait.

Seniors too, both the high school kind and your parents or grandparents!

As an award-winning staff photojournalist for 15 years with a major daily newspaper, I worked everyday to draw out personalities, to tell a story with a photograph. To capture emotion worthy of a feature page cover!

SPOILER AHEAD

The best images are not made with the most expensive camera, bursting with a thousand shots “spraying and praying”. It’s not about the camera at all, but the result of a genuine connection between subject and photographer—an ease, a comfort which shows in the image. (The magic isn’t in the camera, it’s in you, captured on real film!)

I shoot in studio, or at your location. Whichever best serves you.

Because, it’s all about you and your family. For a truly special photograph that will be shared and passed down for generations, choose film.

You’ll feel the difference when the photograph—a magical, artistic image of your family—is displayed in your home. Your guests will see the difference, as it won’t be like any others.

See my other film portraits at http://kennethwajda.com/kennethwajdafilmportraitist.htm

CALL TO SCHEDULE
Please call 720.982.9237 to schedule your film portrait session. Sessions start at $325 and include print packages. Traditional silver and canvas prints are available.

NOTE: I’m usually booked about three weeks out, but if you have a parent or child visiting and need to work on a specific timetable, I will work with you to make the photograph!

If you are outside of Colorado, still contact me as I travel across the U.S. for commercial clients and may be able to make some time work for you, too.

Time Traveling With a Leica or Rolleiflex

Ohmigod, is that a Saturn?  And look, remember when you had to pedal your bike!

The year is 2066.

We’re teleporting to different parts of the earth, holding meetings on virtual beaches while sitting at home, and having robots do all the chores.

And we’re using the latest camera technology, which means no camera at all–just look at something and it’s captured.

We’re lamenting not having any photos from the first quarter of the century, since we didn’t bother to print any of our pictures, and they all got lost in dead computers and outdated phones and hard drives that last booted up decades ago.  And some old program, Facehead, or something, that was supposed to save them all.  Yeah right!

Plus, we don’t have any computers that use USB anymore!   How ancient that technology!

My Leica M2, still going strong in 2066.

As we sit looking out the window, our Leica M2s and M3s and Rolleiflexes still just as functional as they ever were, we load a roll of film and take a walk to go capture some street photos of the day.

The sky is full of PTDs–personal travel devices.  Everywhere, our brains connect with each other through telepathic waves.  Cars have long ago ceased to exist.

And we find ourselves thinking about the good old days.  Like 50 years ago, when things were simpler.  Sure there was that terrible fiasco with President Trump, but thankfully he was quickly arrested and tried for his crimes.  And then President Sanders’ brought all nations together.  War ended and America prospered, which is why we have such a great economy, plentiful jobs and USA-made robots and devices today.

But still, taking photos of present day just doesn’t seem as cool as the old days.  Back then, there were those cool Nissan Rogues, BMW sedans and those crazy Mini Coopers.  God, haven’t seen one of those in years!

What I wouldn’t do to be able to go back in time to 2016 and photograph them.  What a treat that would be.  But that’s crazy talk.

Look at that old BMW, when they still had wheels!  And drivers!

That’s just what we did in 2016, fifty years ago, when we were enamored by photos of old cars from the 1960s and 1970s.  So busy looking at the old cars, we missed the shots of those cool 2016 cars then.

All I know is I’m glad my Leicas lasted.  And my Rolleiflex.  Because when film made its resurgence in 2022, we were the only ones who knew how to make real photographs.  The rest make memory records, but we make photographs.

Which is why we’re the wealthiest photographers because of our forethought.  Way to go!

“Ah, look, the good old days.”  (Overheard circa 2016)

Time traveling.  That’s what people will be doing 50 years from today in 2116–looking back on life in 2066 (“Ah, the good old days,” they’ll say.).

That photo of the PTD fuel station that looks like nothing now, just a bunch of hovering vehicles powering up?  Add 50 years.  It needs time to become valuable.  Once time passes, familiar elements fade away.  Buildings change.  The cars, the shops, the cities.  Then the photos take on meaning.

I’m no math whiz, but here’s the equation: [P+T-GP!]   (Photograph + Time = Great Photograph!)  The photo needs to be good, too.  Let’s not forget that.

Ask Stephen Shore.  Or William Eggleston. They both knew the equation.

If I were back in 2016, I’d go out and shoot ordinary things, with an eye to the future.  Because maybe I’m not shooting them for me.  Maybe they’re historical photos for the Shorpy galleries of tomorrow.  (So glad that company is still going strong, with galleries around the world.)

But alas, I can’t time travel.  They say that technology will be ready in another twenty years but they’ve been saying that forever.

I better get shooting!

New Film Camera Buying Tips on YouTube

I’m starting a series of videos on buying older 35mm and 120 film cameras, going through my collection or else cameras I have access to, to discuss.  It’s here: Buying Used Film SLR and TLR Cameras – Let me know of your requests, and I’ll post them soon.