For us that are "wisdom endowed", you will remember going to to pickup your pictures! Although we all still do that, it meant way more back before the internet.
I remember the internet starting in the 90's...bulletin boards and chat rooms. Simple text connecting strangers to one another where real time was the reason it felt new. The world has always connected with words...delivered by mail, telegraph, and now digital sharing with worldwide reach at the blink of an eye. Now we all do it and can't put down the device we do it with...some call it an addiction. I call it connecting, sharing, helping, loving...the adjectives could pile up depending on who you ask.
So back to picking up your pictures...prior to being able to share text or pictures with anybody other than mailing a postcard, a letter or taking your freshly developed pack of 3x5s to your friend's house. What a thrill it was to drop of your roll of film at whatever your favorite store was back in the day...yes we still get pictures printed but it''s much simpler now with digital cameras. Film, although still used, has been replaced by digital capture and storage which allow for instant results. There was also instant film years ago, most pioneered by a company called Polaroid. That type of instant result is popular again even with digital photography accepted and used worldwide.
I had a small 35mm camera when I was younger and I could attach one time use flash bulbs that were usually sold as a block of 10 and would attach to my camera and nearly be the same size as the camera. These bulbs would fire off each time you took a picture and even though film could be bought in any speed and size, my flashes were typically used up way before my film roll was used up. I still have many of the pictures I had processed as a child and young adult (thanks to my parents!) and recently looked back through them to reflect. The very first ones were my toys like Matchbox cars and then later were also my toys like a Buick Grand National!
A previous client reminded me of the importance of showing off what you capture in some form or another. Her family had every intention of getting their pictures printed since the shoot was for a Christmas card and even after 3 years going by, I still laugh out loud at the magic that was captured that day!
Time flies, catch it!