When I was growing up, family gatherings (usually at Grandma’s house) were always a special occasion. All the relatives would gather and, since they were captive until after lunch was served (and they’d eaten), it was always the time for everyone to “Bring out the Kodaks” and snap pictures of the gathered clan.

Every adult at the gathering, or so it seemed, had a Kodak Brownie box-camera, and were busily directing all the relatives into groups, so we could record the family-dinners for all posterity.

The group photos, of course, were always minus the owner of the particular camera that was taking the picture at the time, but Aunts and Uncles would make duplicte photos for each other to fill-in any missing relatives, lest they be forgotten by history.

Carefully arranging the smallest to the tallest, making sure nobody was hidden by another or obscured by a shadow, having the group bunch-up or spread out to fill the fixed-focus lens, this was all part of the process, which was repeated at every family-gathering.

A last minute check to make sure everyone was smiling and nobody was using their fingers to create “horns” on the person in front of them, and the picture was snapped.

Carefully pressing the grey release button down, while making sure your errant fingers didn’t get in front of the lens while holding the Kodak, the technical skills required to take a good picture were not to be taken lightly.

“Snap-clunk” went the shutter, then you carefully wound the 120-roll film to the next frame indicated in the little round-red-window.

Off to the drugstore to get the black & white film developed and, if they weren’t too busy, a week later you’d have all the memories printed out and in your photo albums (look at that, I thought for sure Uncle Jack was smiling in that picture….).

Thanks to Kodak, who said “You press the button and leave the rest to Us!” and the superlative technical-skills of my Aunts, Uncles and Grandma, we have memories that will live forever.

Picture taken with a Nikon D-200, Nikon 105mm VR macro lens,Nikon wired-remote, Giottos tripod, SanDisk Ultra II memory card, Home-Depot clamp light and Ikea Halogen desk lamp.