Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Instamatic Rejects - Unrejected!

I've been scanning quite a lot of vintage Kodak Instamatic negatives (from a batch given to me by a friend), and, being negatives, sometimes it is hard to know what the final result will look like beforehand. It seems like one out of five turn out to be burry or flawed in some manner. I was not going to bother sharing any of these problem scans, but this morning I thought that it might be better to just share them all at one go and let you see them in spite of their flaws.

This first shot shows one of the Surreys, pulled by cute little piebald horsies; it would have been nice, but a light leak (or a poltergeist) left some unfortunate pale streaks on the final image.


This is a nicely-composed shot (though blurry) from the old Indian Village, especially with the yellow passenger cars from the train in the background. 


The C.K. Holliday is almost lost in the darkness here. And it's a little blurry...


Maybe the soft focus gives this a bit of a dreamlike feel?


Twinkle, twinkle, blurry star...


It's nice to see the Columbia with sails, even if it is not entirely in focus!


Blurry...


And one last blurry image for you, from Nature's Wonderland.


I'm sure there will be more rejects as I continue scanning... maybe I will unreject them as well!

12 comments:

K. Martinez said...

Wow! 8 pics in 1 post. Is that a record?

I love the Indian Village photo with yellow passenger cars in the background. Very unusual.

There are really some great shots here. Yes, unreject more. These are great!

PsySocDisney said...

It's like the Island of Misfit Toys for Disneyland photos! How nice of you to show a little love to the rejects. I too like the Indian Village shot as well as the Columbia.

Rich T. said...

I like the idea of having these all together in a theme day; seeing blurry photos of the past is better than never seeing them at all! :)

Melissa said...

Whoa, Dobbin! Don't go into the light, boy!

Alonzo P Hawk said...

Light or no light, all are welcome, all are welcome.

They look pretty good for rejects.
Any shot of Natures Wonderland is OK in my book.
Thanks for posting these.

HBG2 said...

In the Mark Twain shot, that's the Haunted Mansion building under construction, just visible over the top of the beloved riverboat. (And before someone suggests it, no, that straw-colored stuff isn't the Columbia).

That photo was taken in mid-1962.

See, this is why you should just post 'em!

Anonymous said...

What a great pic of the Indian Village.

Also, what HBG2 said.

Thank you Major, Disneyland with my glasses off is still my favorite place to be.

JG

Anonymous said...

I'm on board with "just post 'em!". Some are a little soft, some are weird compostion, some are "why'd they take that one?"
And that's actually the main reason to show them...somebody thought it was interesting enough at the moment to release the shutter, and it's great fun 40 years later to look at that moment and wonder again!

Love 'em all!

Bill in Denver

Nanook said...

Major-

Have to agree with the rest of the gang: Sometimes "a soft glow" surrounding so many rare images is preferable. Especially since the promise, eventually to be unfulfilled, intoned in the People and Places film - Disneyland, U.S.A.: "...Indian Territory, a permanent and popular attraction here at Disneyland..."

Major Pepperidge said...

K. Martinez, 8 photos might be a record for me, not really sure. Of course Daveland laughs at a mere 8 photos!

Hannahx2, I guess my need to post stuff, worked out for everybody.

Rich T, that was my theory as well!

Melissa, those horses can pass through ectoplasm with no ill effects.

Alonzo, I can already tell you that I have plenty of additional blurry Instamatic pix to share.

HMG2, funny, I really just assumed it was the Columbia behind the Twain. It's cool that it is the Mansion, but I sure wish I had a better look.

JG, yes, the Indian Village photo is definitely one of my favorites of this batch.

Bill, for the most part, I don't wonder why my friend took these… he had a pretty good eye, I think. And he gets a pass because he was a kid!

Nanook, I'm sure that in 1956 they could never dream that the Indian Village would go away. I'm not even sure how popular something like that would be nowadays...

SundayNight said...

Even with this batch of blurry shots we get an unusual perspective of the Indian Village. Thanks for taking the time to scan these.

Chuck said...

One word for the C.K. Holliday photo - "Magicube."