Old photographs

[SumDay]

It's odd, now that we have them all digitized, it seems we look through them less often than when they were hardcopy.

I suspect this will be the case at our house too. As I dig further in this Rubbermaid tub, I just came across my dad's WWII photo album. He bought the album in Japan, and it's full of pics of post-war Occupied Japan. Lots of pics of his army buddies - first names only. I can't imagine removing these from the album that has his handwriting in white pencil. I guess this will be the one I don't dismantle. And one of my kids actually said he wants it when we pass on to the big photo studio in the sky.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Hah, that feature surprised me. We use Apple TV at our weekend house and on vacations. I was surprised to see that a bunch of travel photos mysteriously appeared when the screen saver popped on. At first i couldn't figure out where they were coming from but then realized that DW has some sort of cloud sharing turned on photos on our iPad and those are downloading to the screen saver.

She'll want to be careful if she has the automatic photo feature turned on for her phone... Not that I had any boozy, out-of-focus photos show up from late night at the bar on my slideshow or anything like that...

 

[Katsmeow]

We had all our photos digitized at Digmypics. We used them twice and both times it was flawless. We were able to look at the photos before we paid for them and could choose not to buy some of them. We downloaded the photos when completed and received a copy on DVD with a small brochure that had a thumbnail of each photo. We also had some home video transferred to DVD.

 

[MBAustin]

Pictures without identification are so sad. When my parents moved to FL, I helped clean out the basement of their house. They had several chests of photos from both sets of their parents and only a fraction had any identification. Mom & Dad recognized a few people and we kept those, but the rest went in the trash since we had no idea who they were. So if you digitize, adding metadata (captions, etc.) is important. It would also be good to have the identifications in another format because when you switch photo programs it may or may not preserve the metadata.

 

[SumDay]

Just saw this article on Next Avenue, and thought I'd share.


Why You Shouldn't Get Rid of Old Photos - Next Avenue

 

[W2R]

I digitized a substantial collection of family photos that went back over 150 years, due to ancestors who were photographers and other ancestors who just enjoyed photography as a hobby. I am so glad that I did it! Some of original photographs were in pretty bad shape, others were not. I sent digital copies to several relatives, so that if anything happens to me they will at least have the digitized versions.

I am also saving the hard copies of these photos. I just packed them to move to my dream house. But, if Katrina II washes me away, at least the digitized photos will stay in the family.

Here's one, taken in 1917, of my mother, uncle, and grandfather.

 

[Nemo2]

^ What are they reading? Tried enlarging, to no avail.

From the bow in your mother's hair, I suspected Alice in Wonderland

 

[W2R]

I enlarged the higher resolution scan, and the book is called "Studio Light" and shows a photo of some people being photographed. Probably they were in my great uncle's photographic studio, looking at some book of the day on how to arrange proper lighting for photography. My grandfather had a way of making anything at all seem fascinating to his children or grandchildren, as you can see.

My mother was only 8, although my uncle was a little older. My grandfather was a chemistry professor and was probably enjoying the chance to learn more about photography, at the studio.

My mother always wore a big bow in her hair when she was little. I guess that was the style for little girls at that time and place.

 

[braumeister]

some book of the day on how to arrange proper lighting for photography.

Apparently a series of pamphlets (about 32 pages each) published semiannually for many years by Eastman Kodak, containing various advice articles for photographers (along with ads for equipment and supplies).

A typical example:
Studio Light by Various: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York Soft cover - Barry Cassidy Rare Books

 

[W2R]

Apparently a series of pamphlets (about 32 pages each) published semiannually for many years by Eastman Kodak, containing various advice articles for photographers (along with ads for equipment and supplies).

A typical example:
Studio Light by Various: Eastman Kodak Company, Rochester, New York Soft cover - Barry Cassidy Rare Books

Aha!! Thanks!

 

[Sarah in SC]

Such a cool shot, W2! I love when studio portraits have some unique element like that! Makes them so much more interesting. Thanks for sharing this one with us.