Don't blink, be still, ready, 1, 2, 3, say CHEESE!

These are the words I often hear during the predigital days. I'm sure most of my followers have experienced taking pictures that are expensive, time consuming, and is a hit or miss attempt. A typical Kodak camera would need rolls of films (12, 24 or 36 shots), AA batteries, and a photo processing center. You have to pay for the developing fee and wait for hours before to finally catch a glimpse of the most awaited pictures. And while waiting for the pictures, you pray that you didn't blink while the shots were taken. Otherwise, you will appear to have closed eyes and a wide open mouth in print. And you know what happens next. Your hilarious face will be the object of everyone's laughter. On the contrary, beautiful shots will make you long for a recopy. You suddenly search for the negatives, raise them against the light and take note of the number assigned to your once in a lifetime perfect shot.

Picture taking before meant no delete, auto preview, and editing functions. What was taken was taken and it remains forever. And why am I suddenly taking about the predigital days? It's because I found some scanned predigital pictures in my netbook. Instead of letting them become idle in my hard drive, why not share them? Anyway the people in the pictures are not familiar of my blog life. They will never know that I posted their embarassing old pictures. ;)

I believe the oldest predigital picture I have are from my paternal grandparents.

The vehicle behind them is a jeepney, the famous form of public transportation in the Philippines. Jeepneys were the main source of income of my grandparents. According to my Daddy, this picture was taken in Antipolo, where the family attended a Sunday mass and have the brand new jeepney blessed by a priest. Antipolo by the way is the next city to my hometown. Antipolo houses the parish of the Our Lady of Good Voyage. Most Filipino Catholics bring their brand new vehicles to Antipolo to have them blessed since the parish is the home of the Our Lady of Good Voyage.

Here are pictures of my paternal cousins.


The three kids are my elder cousins who are siblings. I wasn't born yet when this picture was taken. This was around the late 70s. The kid who is enclosed in a circular wood is my special brother. The circular wood is called andador, the Filipino version of a baby walker.

Finally, I was born :). The picture was taken during my 3rd birthday and with me are my paternal cousins.
Look at my bangs and pig tails! The pictures prove that ever since I was a kid, my most hated ginormous cheeks were already evident.

Me and my maternal cousins

Taken in the late 90s, my nephews from my cousins. This was my brother's 21st birthday celebration.

Dear Micaelo and Patrick, please don't get mad to Ate Diane. The two boys who are blowing the cake are now grown up gentlemen. They will be college freshment next year.

I hope you were entertained and not annoyed by our predigital pics. ;-) Have a great weekend.