Les O'Brien Photographs' photostream

These photos were taken by my father, Les O'Brien. Dad was born in 1928, and he got involved in photography as a teen. On a trip to Germany in 1959 - 50 years ago - he purchased a Rolleiflex 2.8f, a classic camera for professionals at the time.

The Rolleiflex uses 120 film, creating a negative 2 1/2 inches square. There are 12 photos to a roll. I used to sit under the table in the darkroom while Dad developed his photos, as he worked with the enlarger to burn and dodge the photos, in the red light. He didn't know for sure what he had til the paper spent time in the developer and the photo appeared slowly, like magic.

I called Dad today - he now lives with his girlfriend in California - he said, "Film wasn't cheap." The money and time required to create a photo made you pay attention to each one. Not like today - I took 300 photos at a recent party. Dad took maybe 150 a year.

Dad would frame a few and put them on the wall at home. We had room for 12 photos at a time, and the others stayed in boxes. We kids would get out the boxes and go through them and laugh and remember.

I recently asked Dad to send me some of the boxes, so I could scan the photos and share them with my siblings. It's a shame to think of some of these gems resting forever in a dark box, so I thought I would share a few here on Flickr. I take photographs myself and by studying Dad's photos, and others like his here on Flickr, I hope to get better and better.

Dad is still taking photos.

Thanks for reading, and looking. Have a great day!

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