November 10, 2012

35mm to Digital

Old memories. Our lives are full of them, yes? Some treasured, some less so. Many never settle long enough to fully form. Other moments in time, memories, are so poignant they remain in perfect form through decades. We remember the feel of the air, the placement of the sun in the sky, the scents and the sounds filling in the remaining blank spots on the canvas. 

Such a gift, old memories. And if we are lucky, when those gifted memories do begin to fade, we have images to assist in re-painting our mental canvas. 

I've been digging through old photos, taken long ago on a quiet street in Oaxaca. They surfaced along with other images I'm trying to transition from 35mm to digital. Others may find their way here, or not. The process of walking back in time, the remembering, is the journey of the moment. And I remain ever grateful for the lasting images made possible in part by good ole' Kodak film. You were a friend of mine.

6 comments:

Teresa Evangeline said...

I do miss film. I love the old ways... :)

It's good to see you, Chris.

Judy Sall Fiber Art said...

It is nice to be able to preserve old memories! I just pulled a photo from our wedding album to post on FB... taken 25 years ago, and I have seldom looked at it since. It was nice to remember the day, and share along with a recent photo with folks who knew us back then! I'm curious how you are converting your photos to digital... are you taking pix of the pix? Or is there a magic process for doing it?

Sea Mist and Sunsets said...

Teresa,
Yes, the old ways. I miss many of them as well. And with photography, I ride center saddle, between loving the range of options with digital and the 35 quality that hasn't quite translated to digital, for me anyway. I'm no expert at making images. Those who are, do seem to be having a good deal of success with recreating that special quality.

We do still get to click away, making new image memories. And, so far, those mental recordings. Ever grateful for that.
Fall hugs,
Chris

Sea Mist and Sunsets said...

Judy,
A similar thing sent me to the old photos collection. Someone wanted an old school picture of mine. I didn't think I had many, which speaks to my lack of organization. There were some, along with tons of other images I had not looked at in eons as well. Wedding pictures included. I don't know about you, but I forgot we ever looked that young. Geez.

How fun to remember your wedding day with folks who were there, and new family and friends.

Regarding how I'm making the old images to new transitions; in this case it was taking a new pix of the old pix, as you mentioned. Not a perfect situation as the camera was handheld and I'm not as steady as I used to be. A small tripod and light box would be much better. Ideally I would scan them all for best quality. However, my scanner is older and not as pixel/resolution high as the images deserve. Also, those scans make such large files, it gets a bit tough to work out storage. I suspect in the end, I'll be doing bits of both versions.

At one point, years ago, a family member loaned me some very old family photos to reprint. I copied them all on a good copier (thankfully) and then scanned and saved each to zipdisks. Well, zipdiscs went the way of a ton of other great ideas and for now, those images are locked in useless safety. Lesson, save images in numerous ways if they are important. Wish we had had digital then.

When I opened our the big picture box and started my search for the school photo my husband said, that is going grab you for hours. I didn't agree. He was soooo right!
Hugs,
Chris

Sea Mist and Sunsets said...

Clarification: "Wish we had digital then" referred to digital cameras. But you knew that.

Judy Sall Fiber Art said...

Suggestion re: storage of large files... I take pix of every single item I post in my online store, and about a year or so ago, I bought an external hard drive to store pictures and documents, so it doesn't tie up my regular hard drive. I have a ton of files stored on it, and it has just barely registered! I have used 6.02 GB, and still have 1.35 TB (no idea what that translates to!) unused... not bad!

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