I adore old black and white photobooths. I love the awkward, dirty, grainy loveliness of each little square. I love that no two strips are ever the same. I love feeding the quarters into the slot and wheeling the little stool around to just the right height. I think they are the best two dollars ever spent (or three, or four, or five). Every year for my birthday I ask my husband for a photobooth of my own. I am still waiting.
Years ago I fell in love with one photobooth. It was in the back of a restaurant, and even though it was a bit of a hike from our place in Brooklyn, I made sure we got there a few times each year. "Why don't we grab brunch at Bubby's?" I would say. My husband would give me a look.. he knew we were only going for the booth.
Since our move to California, I am on the search for a new booth to love. This site helped me find a few at our local county fair, but it only comes to town for a few weeks each summer. So what's a girl to do? Make your own!
We spent the morning yesterday rigging up a photobooth in our living room. I hung a little curtain from a couple of chairs, added a stool to sit on, and set up the camera on the tripod. We grabbed a few props (winter hats, paper chains...) and clicked away.
The finishing touch: Convert the new pics to black and white, up the contrast, and use photoshop to drop the new pictures onto some old filmstrips I scanned in. It's not quite as good as the real thing, but it's making me pretty happy today.
Note: I wish I could show you more, but I made a decision when I started this blog to keep my children anonymous, and though I sometimes wish I could show you the adorable faces my two year old is making these days.. I'm sticking with my promise.