Here we are, well into the age of digital photograpy. I know there are a lot of you out there like me that were taking pictures before digital became the norm so what's the story on all the slides and prints you have accumulated over the years? How do you store yours and do you go back and look at them often? What got me to thinking about this was I was doing a little digging in a closet and started flipping through pages of some photo books. I would estimate that I have some 20,000 to 25,000 print photos and a couple thousand slides. All are neatly placed in archival photo books or slide pages with the negatives also stored in negative sleve pages. I rarely look at them any more as it's so much easier on the computer. I am thinking I will create an index on my computer someday so I will be able to locate pics when I want them. Anyone else doing something similar? Lots of good memories in my pics.
My slides are neatly sorted by railroad, locations alphabetical, or engine numbers sequential, either in metal slide boxes, or carousels. I was never much on prints, so those don't amount to a large number. They are in albums boxed up and stored on a closet shelf. I should get them out, look and enjoy! One thing I have noted of the slides, which didn't seem to show using just a projector- Scanning mine with just an el cheapo machine, most of them, (which came via Kodak processing), look like they were run through a sewagebath. Very disappointing to need the time required forphotoshopping out the mess they made of precious views- Which cannot be recaptured... :tb-sad: Boxcab E50
I have my slides in metal boxes and most have survived, especially Kodachromes. Anscochrome was a disaster for lasting. In the last few years I have scanned some family ones and sent them to the family in digital form. Same with print photos, I have scanned them and digitized them. I have about 30 albums of prints and 13 boxes of slides dating back to 1961. Some are of unbelievable events when we were flying an L-1011 around the world trying to sell some, over Mt. Kilimanjaro, Victoria Falls, the Taj Mahal, Baghdad, etc. etc. Digitizing them is a good idea if your offspring are interested. Now, if they are of trains, post them here so we can all appreciate them! :tb-biggrin:
I've scanned nearly all the prints and slides that I want to preserve. I haven't replaced the Epson 4990 scanner with slide accessories yet--not enough room until I move my stuff across the commons here. The backlit accessory really turned my slide scanning around--they turned out spectacularly. Now, most of my slides and prints were done by professional labs, so they were clean. I used good old Kodachrome and Ektachrome, and pretty much kept slides and negatives in a cool, dry, dark place. Some of the prints had faded badly. While I scanned some from negatives, that took a lot of fiddling. Some I just reprinted a few on 4 x 6 paper at a local lab and scanned the photos. Worked just fine in terms of resolution.
