Geesh, sounds like you young-uns never had to trudge to school barefoot in the snow, uphill both ways. Back in the Pleistocene, you couldn’t just point a camera at something, push a button, and have the picture come out on one of them there new-fangled computerators.
We did have cameras, but you had to go to a store, buy a “roll” of this stuff called “film”, and load that into the camera. Then you had to get in front of something worth looking at and take a picture. That’s no different today, except people too often skip the first part because there is so little cost to taking a picture. After taking the picture, you couldn’t see it until you brought the film to a place to “develop” it. Usually a couple of days later, you’d finally see if that picture you took was actually worth something.
Even then, you only had a single original “negative” or “slide”. Copies could be made, but the process was analog, and copies were never quite as good as the single original.
Each picture cost some actual money, and there was always a lag before you got to see if it worked out. You therefore were a lot more careful with setup and choosing your subject.
The oldest observation I have uploaded so far is of a White-line sphynx moth on the north rim of the Grand Canyon from 1985 (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/10554619). That was taken with Kodachrome slide film, ISO 64. It was cloudy bright that day, so not enough light to use a fast shutter. I held a flash close to the end of the lens to overwhelm the ambient light and give me a very short exposure. The wings are still blurred, but at least visible.
I’ll now go upload a really nice picture of some mountain goats (Oreamnos americanus) in Glacier National park from 1974. OK, here it is: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/101187266. That was taken with Ektachrome 64 slide film and a basic camera with no electronics. Back then you had to look at the lighting and judge the exposure for yourself. The camera could take different lenses, but all I had on that hike was a 105 mm, so had to spend some time letting the goats get used to me to get close enough to take this picture. They moved away only a few seconds after this picture was taken. It was still a memorable experience, even though I had just graduated from high school then, and am now on Medicare.