The Family Album

[Bill Pierce]

Sorry for the disappearing act. The California wildfires called for a quick evacuation. We’re back now, no damage done except ash on the lawn furniture. While I left a great many prints behind, I left with hard discs that held the great majority of my images with one exception - those albums and boxes of snapshots that represent several generations of family history. Aged albums and boxes of fading drugstore prints sit on a bookshelf. Time has not been kind to many of them which have begun to fade or suffer physical damage. I thought I should scan those detiorating images too as much to preserve them as add them to the “in case of fire” boxes.

You don’t need an expensive scanner to scan small prints that you won’t be enlarging or just viewing on a computer screen. Many folks already own economical flatbed scanners in their offices. Is it time to scan the family albums? Your thoughts and suggestions…

 

[lynnb]

Glad to hear you escaped the fires unharmed Bill. You're right, this is a timely reminder to digitally back up those old family albums.. and slides.

Let's not forget also, to digitise those old 16mm and 8mm home movies. I'm guilty of this, put off by the cost, but it would be tragic to lose them.

 

[shimokita]

I have scanned a few selected prints, but there's just too many... Every couple of years I get out the carton boxes and have a look see... hard to let go, but at least in our family I can't imagine any interest in the next generation... particularly if viewed as a digital image... the "value" is the physical print - old, faded, and falling apart at the edges.

 

[Eric T]

This is something I need to do for the many photos and VHS videos taken of our kids when they were young in the 1990s.
My family and I lived through the great fire in Canberra, Australia in January, 2003. I was there on sabbatical at the Australian National visit.
My colleague in the office next door at ANU lost his house. He hosts a house cooling party the next week. We learned from this experience that the only things of real value you lose in such a fire are your photos and videos.
Smart of Bill to pack up his hard drive when he escaped.
Bill - we are all glad to here that you are well!

 

[raid]

I am glad that you fine, Bill.
The problem with scanning many old family photos is that time flies, and by the time we manage to do the extensive scanning, we are much older, and then suddenly there are more important issues to take care of. Maybe I am seeing things as complex when they are easy to do?

 

[majid]

So many of our fellow Californians have lost everything, I am glad you escaped unhurt and your home wasn't a casualty.

I am lucky in that most of my family pictures are slides. My father brought them over a few years ago to scan them on my Nikon Super Coolscan 5000ED with the batch slide feeder. Most are Kodachromes, so that means no digital ICE. I do have a 9000ED which has Digital ICE4 that works with Kodachromes, but it doesn't have a batch feeder and is very cumbersome.

For prints, have a look at the Epson FastFoto FF-640 scanner. It's come down in price because the newer FF-680W came out. It's also a document scanner, so not a unitasker and useful for general office stuff, not just scanning photos. The important thing is either model has the software and automation required to make the chore of scanning old photos much more productive.

 

[Timmyjoe]

Glad you're safe Bill.

Best,
-Tim

 

[Mackinaw]

Glad you and your family are OK.

When my folks passed away, I grabbed everything photo-related I could find. I have literally hundreds of 1915 through 1960’s negatives and transparencies that somebody in my family took. It took me the better part of a year, but I’ve scanned all of them. Of course I have the original hard copies too.

Of particular interest are the 100 year old 4x5 glass plate negatives my dad’s great uncle took, and the pics my dad took while stationed in the Pacific during WW2. Absolutely priceless.

Jim B.

 

[Ko.Fe.]

I scanned MIL family pictures. And we have some of them enlarged via inkjet printing.

If old bw negatives looks like scratched, they might not scan well. Then I run into this problem with family negatives from seventies, I printed them under enlarger and it was much better than scans.

 

[raid]

I bought a printer 10 days ago with the sole purpose to print out family photos.