Old family photos need to be preserved

<p>My uncle, who is in poor health, recently found a batch of Kodachrome slides and black and white negatives from the late 40's and early 50's. Afraid that they may soon be lost, I borrowed them and scanned them for the family. It may not seem important to you younger shutterbugs now, but if there are old photos or slides stashed at your grandparents or aunt and uncle's, get them, scan them and preserve them for the future. You will appreciate it later. Attached photo: Lakenheath England Air Force Base, 1953, B-47 Bomber mid-air refueling. Camera used:unknown (35mm)</p>

<p>Photo:B47 over England</p><div></div>

<p>Funny, im shooting kodachrome now not only because i like the way it looks, but because of its history as an archival film... If you have any more pictures like the one posted above, please post them!</p>

<p>By all means scan them for sharing with relatives but I think the originals are going to outlast your scans.</p>

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<p>I think the originals are going to outlast your scans.</p>

 

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<p>Possibly true in terms of physical survival of the object <em>per se,</em> but all too often the old family photos are thrown out. Multiple copies in digital form can be a backup that may survive anything but the internet itself.</p>

<p>Of course, it's history! The photo's reflect a period of time. They record the lifestyle of that particular era. Documentary film makers such as Ken Burns often use family type photographs to tell their stories. The photographs may seem ordinary by themsellves, but put in the right hands they can be very powerful statements.<br>

Tom </p>

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<p>Multiple copies in digital form can be a backup that may survive anything but the internet itself.</p>

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<p>I appreciate that but the originals have survived a couple of generations already with their owners (guardians) just having to keep them somewhere.</p>

<p>You may be vigilant with your file backup procedures but what are future generations going to do?</p>

<p>I assigned my Dad a scanning project of <strong>all his slides</strong> ; he's not very computer literate so he mailed me the CD's across country, I duplicated the disks, then mailed those out to siblings. Several thousand slides from the '60s to mid-'70s.</p>

<p>Much better than the original these scans! Start now, you'll be happy.</p><div></div>

<p>Steve Smith, I agree wholeheartedly with the OP to scan and preserve for the future. The easiest way to preserve digital files is to have as wide a distribution as possible. Siblings, aunts and uncles, cousins, and their kids, and anyone else you can think of. But that's as good as you can do, because it's up to the future to preserve them at that point, and that really depends on their own needs and wants, which have nothing to do with our own, necessarily. Making them widely available gains us a chance to find someone like-minded.</p>

<p>FWIW, stuff I wrote to <em>Byte</em> magazine back in 1984-5 still shows up on a Google. The internet has standardized some things to a point such that I suspect that sheer inertia will keep formats like jpg readable for a long time.<br>

Sure, specifc media like CD-ROM will come and go, and it is necessary to keep the files backed up to current standards, but if that is done carefully and diligently the files don't fade or get eaten by termites. Multiple copies lessen the likelihood that some callow youth in the next generation will toss the whole thing out.</p>

 

<p>I would scan it so that you can print the scans out and enjoy looking at them. That's what photos are for. And once they are scanned you can look at your prints without the risk of damage or further fading, plus you have backups.</p>

<p>Cheers</p>

<p>Alan</p>