Dear family and friends, attached is the latest installment of the Ralph Family Photo Album, one of my "shelter at home projects" and an opportunity to share family photos and stories. Enjoy! (text and photo files)
Embedded Files
1940’s “Selfie”
We grew up in a home with a darkroom where dad would supplement his postwar income by photographing kids, sports teams, youth groups, dance classes and an occasional commercial assignment as well as take hundreds of family photos. There were no smart phones or digital cameras in those days and dads photos were taken on 4” x 5” sheet film on his Speed Graphic camera or on rolls of black and white film with his smaller cameras. Film developing was done in complete darkness usually taking an entire evening. The process began with removal of the exposed film from his camera and transfer into a light tight containers with alternating baths of chemicals and water rinses creating negatives. He then printed the images by exposing photographic paper to the projected negatives on his “enlarger” and then repeating the chemical process in trays.
I can still recall standing with my dad in the subdued red light and watching him poke and prod the sensitized paper with plastic tongs and watching as the images slowly and magically appeared. The prints were then removed at the perfect moment, dipped into a final solution to halt the chemical process and hung on strings with clothes pins around the darkroom to dry. In later years he was able to purchase an electric drum dryer speeding up the process. Home color film processing was extremely complicated and expensive so he would enlist mom to carefully hand “colorize” selected black and white photographs using tubes of pigment, brushes and tissue.
Dads life long photography hobby also included movie making. He was a member of the Hayward Movie Club that met at Jack Hobson’s house or downtown at Bill Bowman’s camera store on upper B Street.
Dad, along with 8 or 10 like minded club members met monthly to critique the short 3 minute 8mm films that they shot during the prior month and would hold an annual contest for the best movie and best color slides taken during the year. Home movie making was expensive and difficult in those days. Dad had a basic Bell and Howell movie camera and it could take 8 or more rolls of film to produce a 20 minute movie. Film processing was done by specialized photo labs requiring 2-4 weeks of processing and mailing time.
Dad was able to produce dozens of films through the years of family, trips, parades and experimental subjects including a stop motion “Invisible Man” film.
I’m sure that he would be pleased to know that many members of our family have embraced photography as a hobby and enjoy taking photos of their own families, friends and places. Many of dad’s photos, negatives, slides and movies are stored in bins and albums awaiting organization, conversion, and availability to future generations as well as a resource for these little family history vignettes. -Bill
Photo: William H. Ralph with sons James Barton Ralph (left) and William Charles Ralph (right) approx.1948
Google: “Castro Valley History” and click on the Youtube Castro Valley History Video highlighting some of dads early films.
Dads movies of early Castro Valley and Hayward are part of a continuous loop of
old films that are in the collection of the Hayward Area Historical Museum.
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