Scanning Slides
I have been scanning slides for the past four months! I am using a Nikon Coolscan V film and negative scanner and although a bit slow and noisy it’s doing a great job. I must have hundreds and hundreds of slides – mostly Kodachromes and they are still in good condition. My family love the slides and I promised that I would do a book. In the meantime my son told me he would love to have a gallery of some of these nostalgic photographs on the wall of his home. I am almost finished scanning the last of the slides which will then be burnt onto a DVD and David will then have the difficult task of having to choose which images he would like to have as prints.
Here are two that I particularly like.
Mike and David are playing soccer while Lisa is crying about something – probably because she wasn’t included. I can’t remember what happened but I tended to shoot first, and ask questions later.
David and Harry with his characteristic cigar in his mouth. I’m not sure what was happening but I wouldn’t be surprised if David asked if he could try smoking that cigar!
Nostalgic Days in Worcester, Massachusetts
I met Harry many years ago when he and my mother got married. Harry lived in Worcester, Massachusetts and my mother lived in Montreal. Harry proposed and she took a chance and moved down where she had a very happy and full life. Harry had been married before but his wife had died…they had no children but plenty of nieces and nephews. Harry liked kids. At that time Mike and I lived in Montreal and were starting our family. We would go to Worcester a few times a year with the kids and our two dogs. We really enjoyed our times down there and it lasted for over 30 years. Harry died, and my mother moved to Toronto where we live, had four happy years here and died at 92 with complications from a broken hip. What we have left are lots of photographs and good memories.
One day baseball was the backyard activity. Harry was the pitcher and Mike was teaching Lisa how to hit the ball by using her as the baseball bat!
David and Tooshar
This photo was taken almost 35 years ago! Tooshar was our dog, a Samoyed…smart, laid back, fun loving and wonderful! He was very independent and didn’t always listen…he liked to do what he liked to do. My son David was also very independent even at such a young age. It looks like Tooshar decided to make sure that David wouldn’t get lost or fall down rather than run into the woods looking for something to chase. In the meantime I, the opportunist with the camera, recorded this lovely winter scene.
Kodachrome Slides
I just had surgery and will be spending most of the next 6 weeks at home recuperating. I am now in the process of looking through my hundreds and hundreds of Kodachromes and editing them for a book that I will be making for my family. And in the meantime I will be posting some of them…hopefully you will find them interesting, touching, or even funny. I know I am really enjoying this project – seeing all my old slides and enjoying the memories. I also hope to do some Polaroid transfers.
Indulgence
Still recuperating from the surgery but coming along quickly. In the meantime going through these slides is like eating potato chips…I can’t stop. They are treasures and thank God for the “newish” technology. I scan the slides, onto the computer they go and then call on Photoshop to edit and have even more fun. And there I have it – a digitized image from a Kodachrome slide. Somebody told me that these slides, although not so much Kodachromes, will also eventually fade. So this is my indulgence which I’m happy to share with you.
Another Waterfight
Lisa at Breakfast
Even though my kids were used to me having a camera in front of my face at all times, they could still act coy. David was too young for coyness – he was more interested in finding out if finger painting was boring or fun.
50′s Nostalgia from the 80′s
I love the next photo. It reminds me of the 50′s when kids could be kids and just hang out and play without much worry. Kids knew they should look both ways before crossing the street, not to talk to strangers and to be home for supper. How times have changed since then. Now they wear helmets on tricycles, carry cell phones to keep in touch with Mum at all times, and don’t seem to play hide and go seek.
