The First Color Photo of Betty Lou

When I was thinking about my blog earlier today, I decided that I would post the first color photo from my mom’s side of the family.  I didn’t know what that would be, but I was sure that it would be interesting.  At least it would be interesting enough.  After I got home and watched a few chateau videos on YouTube, I decided it was time to look for the photo matching the requirements I had set.

I found a photo of my great great grandfather Samuel Phenice from 1939, but I don’t have a good copy of it yet.  It’s got too much glare on it.  Plus, I am not sure if it is an actual color photo.  It could be a color tinted photo from around 1939.  It has to be from that year or earlier because that was the year Samuel died.  So I ruled that one out.  There is still a chance that I will share it at a later date.  I also found some color photos of my mom’s maternal side of her family.  They were of her grandmother Addie May Hine Bucklin.  I like those photos, but I already shared those photos before and have said everything I wanted to about them.

I decided to look at the photos of my mom.  I was kind of surprised that the first color photo of her was from 1954.  None of her childhood photos were in color.  Color photography was around during that time, but it was not as easily available and was more expensive.  I have some photos of mom and her family that have been colored in various ways, but they weren’t originally color photos.  

My mom and dad (Betty Lou Bucklin Landry and Robert Joseph Landry, Jr. – Betty and Bob to most people) must have splurged and gotten some color film back in 1954.  It was color slide film.  I know that because I scanned this from an old slide.  I used to use slide film when I was younger because it was cheaper than having all of those photos processed.  I would take slide photos and then have prints made from the better photos.  Photography has evolved quite a bit since then.

One of the drawbacks of those old color photos is that they are all extremely blurry.  I’m not sure of the reason why.  The black and white photos that they took before and after are very clear, so I don’t think it would be human error.  I would think that they would be using the same camera, too.  Whatever caused it, it wasn’t good.  So I used a program or two to clean up the scratches and sharpen it.  My mom doesn’t look quite right.  It’s the best you can get at this point without an AI program studying all of the photos of a person and filling in the missing details from accumulated data.  That will probably happen later.

I’m still using the photo because it is a cute photo.  I like that my mom and my sister Jodie are surrounded by flowers.  I can make out zinnias in the foreground and I think those are morning glories behind my mom’s head.  I’ve been enjoying the flowers around our garden this time of the year, so I thought it was appropriate.  I think the photo was taken in August of 1954.  I’m thinking it was in California just before they moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico.  My dad was in the Air Force at the time.

While I’m posting this photo of my mom, I thought I would go ahead and post another photo from the same time.  Like all of the other color photos from my mom and dad at that time, it is blurry.  If you know me well, you might know that I like blurry photos – especially landscapes.  Sometimes I intentionally move my camera as I’m taking a photo to get different effects. 

This photo was taken a few months later at a park in Albuquerque.  It’s blurry, but not too blurry.  Just blurry enough to make it interesting!  And the colors are great.  This might have been the first time my mom saw fall colors this beautiful.  Louisiana does not have great fall colors.  She would have appreciated this scene.  I’m surprised she never painted it.  I hope you enjoy it, too.