Wordless Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008
My great grandfather, David Wallace, born 1860.
17 Responses to “Wordless Wednesday, Aug 20, 2008”
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Published: Aug 19 2008
Check out those eyes… They’re so clear/bright. Do you think they touched up the images a bit back then? I love these old photos!
Happy WW!
-smarmoofus
Wow, that is really awesome! I wish I had some old photos of ancestors hanging around. Thanks for sharing yours!!
Come check out my new meme, Pet Peeve Tuesday!
@smarmoofus – In those days they had to touch up the eyes. It took long, long exposures to take a photograph and if was inevitable that you’d blink and move your eyes during that time. To stop the eyes from simply being a blur they’d paint them in afterward.
And your driftwood looks decidedly spooky!
I look at photos of this vintage and marvel at the skill that was required to make them. All the things we take for granted now with auto exposure, auto focus, low dispersion glass, partial metering systems… just calculating a baseline exposure when this photo was taken would have been right on the verge of alchemy. Maybe even sorcery. Thanks for sharing!
I’m up! Happy WW
Very similar to some of my old family shots
I fear they did not smile because of bad teeth?
That’s one nice old picture. Happy WW!
How wonderful to have this old photo. It is very well preserved, and the image is full of life
thanks for sharing that special someone of you! It’s a very nice photograph! Now, I am missing my Granddaddy!
I love old family photos, they make me want to know more about the subject!
I am such a sucker for old photos. I guess that’s why I’m the family genealogist. Or was until having kids put all that on hold. I haven’t been over here in a while. Nice to see you again!
I love old photos. You are so fortunate to have this biece of your family history. This is a beautiful photo. Thank you for sharing.
That’s pretty interesting. I also posted an older photo this week, although your photo is about a hundred years older than mine
@Pamela: I think the lack of smiling was more to do with other factors — partly the fact again that exposures took a long time and holding a fixed smile for 30 seconds would be very uncomfortable, but mostly that having a photograph taken was a serious business.
I don’t think it’s a given that having a photograph taken equals putting on a smile. I think the cultural meme of smiling for the camera has evolved because we want photographs to be reminders of happy times, and if we smile we can convince ourselves that our past was full of such happy times.
Wow! Great photo. Thanks for sharing.
Wow, another great antique photo. I love that you post these! They are always fascinating.
I agree with you about our cultural meme for smiling for the camera. I actually really enjoy photos where people aren’t smiling–I find that it is a truer representation of them. And often, people look better when they aren’t “trying” so hard!
Happy WW
Nice pic, I noticed too that in the old days, it seems like serious stuff not to smile.
It amazes me, how elegant and almost fragile people look in old photos, when really they must have been stronger and tougher than we are. They, and their photos, have a lot to teach us.