DocAndersen
Decay and slide damage makes me sad. Sad because I could have scanned the pictures ten years before. It would have taken a lot longer, but I could have done it. As it is the first few pictures o the Wisconsin River today are damaged slides. It happens — time equalizes all things. I am happy the majority of dad’s pictures are a legacy for future generations of the family. We’ve given my nephew, nieces, and my daughter a copy of the pictures. We also have a hard drive with the pictures to my sisters and of course my mother. Thousands upon thousands of images of the past saved and shared. I am a huge advocate for backing up your digital history. You have to create your digital family history, but once done it is forever.
We digitized pictures. We digitized slides. We also digitized more than 5 hours of film my mother’s father took with his old Kodak Video camera. The tradition of taking pictures has passed through the many generations of our family now. I can honestly say my daughter is a much better photographer than I am. She has the eye my father had. I see it in the framing and moments captured. The rise of digital cameras made me an average photographer. I’ve always had extra memory cards with me. That meant I could take 1000 pictures when I used to take 108 — the sheer number of pictures taken means I don’t miss as many critical moments. The rise and quality of cell phone cameras make that an even larger number of not-missed pictures.
That is, after all, the reality of the past. First that we saw something, some moment that we wished to capture. The moments before and after are we have often captured. Sometimes they are not captured. We miss them, fumbling for our camera or our phones. We can’t stand and often wait for the perfect picture. We can sometimes, but not always. The technology of cameras has changed. If you desire to capture pictures of wild animals, you can add a wildlife camera. Wildlife cameras are mounted and over time capture the motion of wildlife. Or if you love images from above, you can fly a drone — the same for looking under the water with an ROV. Now the question becomes what do you share?
I think that we need to prepare well for such a project. This is not a simple project but requires a lot of work and time.
It does require a lot of time.
That’s special of you and your family, Doc, who is so diligent in keeping such a legacy. Last year my siblings and I saw and left a stack of negative film in the bookshelf drawer at my mother’s house.
It took me several years to actually start the project. Then several more years to complete. Well almost complete. I have 200 of my mother-in-law’s pictures yet to scan.
That’s really like a giant project, Doc!