Dec 30, 2008

New Year's Resolution: Scan, Scan and then Scan Some More!


Last week, I asked a question at a large consumer scrapbook board about slides. I asked how many people had them or were worried about them. The answers were surprisingly and collectively a big YAWN for the most part. Many people admitted that they or their parents HAD slides but most said they either would tackle the giant chore "someday" and "on their own" or that they just couldn't be bothered to worry about them right now.

I am in a panic over mine and I wish people understood that they should be too. They don't last forever. They lose their color, fade to white or fade to black. I've seen all three in the slides I have been scanning. I scanned the slide above just the other night. It's a picture of my husband (sitting) and his older brother who just passed away from ALS in September. It's probably from 1969. My husband has very few photos of himself as a child and this just makes me sick. Slides of my trip to Australia in 1985 have a dark cast to them and slides of our wedding in 1987 have lost their luster, too.

One of my deepest photo fears (the one that keeps me up at night) is that by the time scrapbookers and other family archivists decide to be worried about the 40 year old slides, they'll be unusable.

My New Year's Resolution is to scan everything I can get my hands on this year. Those images are precious and priceless, I need to preserve them!

2 comments:

Musicmom-Amy said...

Okay, you have me sufficiently worried now!! Any suggestions on scanners or does it really matter?

Anonymous said...

slide scanner recommendations? I saw one at bed bath and beyond and thought of this blog..but didn't remember what you said you found.