I've completed a family project of great personal impact.

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

As one or two here may recall, I got possession of my mother's family photo albums last summer. The books were disintegrating and the pictures were fading or otherwise damaged, so I undertook the task of scanning all the photos, restoring and color correcting them, then arranging them and finally creating a DVD photo album for distribution to all the relatives.

I would have been done before Christmas, but my sister in law happened to send me a holiday package that included quite a few family snaps that I didn't know about. The timing couldn't have been better nor the coincidence greater (she had no knowledge of my work). So I delayed finalizing things until I had a chance to add the new photos (including many of me- quite a few I didn't know even existed).

So, after all these months, it's finished. I gave the first copy of the DVD to my sister who lives here in Dallas, and I knew I'd done good when she called me up and freaked. She declared it was so good I should submit it to a contest and go for a reward (although what contest and which prize remains a mystery to me).

It's hard to explain or describe the mental stages I went through while putting this together. Although it started out as just a personal desire to protect and renew the family legacy, it became far more. Throughout the process I was forced to look closely and long at the faces of people long gone. I had to sit here and try to bring my parents, my brothers, and other relatives and friends back from death. In a way I succeeded- in a way they ended up possessing and haunting me. They spoke to me. They smiled at me. They posed for me. They revealed a great many secrets to me as I put their lives back together so those who remain can remember their childhoods.

It was depressing. It was astonishing. It was heartening. It was a way to put many things to rest and to say things to them I hadn't had the chance to say before, and I knew they heard me and understood.

I'm a better person for having gone through this. I learned a few things about my family AND about myself, and I believe my remaining years will be richer for it.

This is something you all need to explore- if not to protect and preserve your family history, then simply to look and remember! I'm not even talking about going through the technical process I went through- I'm simply suggesting you dust off the old albums, sit down and look at the pictures again. Remember your lives. Remember your parents. Remember your friends. Remember.

You won't regret it. I guarantee it.

My mother as a teenager, with her friend Barney and a cat

[Orrex]

1. That's excellent!

I do recall you mentioning this a while back. Congratulations on finishing a true labor of love--your family will benefit from your efforts for decades, at least.

I have a small stack of photo albums in the attic. Nothing as old as the pic of your mom, but shots from the 60s and 70s. They've acquired that classic fade and have lost a fair bit of detail, so I should really get around to scanning them.

Bravo to you for completing the monumental task you set for yourself. Do you happen to know approximately how many photos were involved? What was the oldest? The newest?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

4. Looks like the oldest ones are of my grandma and grandpa

Around the first of the century, IMO- the early 1900s or thereabouts. The last ones are perhaps ten years or so old.

The final count (excluding a few blurry or useless pics) comes in at 281 individual shots. At 15 seconds per shot, that creates a slideshow a little over an hour long. Hopefully not too long for the next family get-together.

[Swede]

2. A labor of love,done well.

Nice going.

[Fire Walk With Me]

3. Great Gramma has a pony! I want one TOO!

;)

Good work PN6, quite the contribution. Quite the perspective generator.

[Quakerfriend]

5. Fabulous! I know the feeling too,

Five years ago I did the same with over 800 pcs of my family-going back to my great, great, great grandparents.

All of the cousins were so thankful!

After the task was completed, I knew without a doubt (as I know you know too), that we are all conected...those here on Earth with those on the other side.

And, I'm sure your mom is smiling down on you;-) !!

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

8. Glad I didn't have eight hundred snaps to scan.

That had to be brutal in many ways.

Still, now that it's done I'm sure you know very well what I'm trying to get across here.

[Whoa_Nelly]

6. Find a publisher

THat can market it as a picture book and a DVD
along with the family stories.

A documentary of an American family.

Seems what you have, and what you have done, is as historical as Shorpy's, but with a personal, heart-warming touch.


Shorpy's link:
http://www.shorpy.com/node?page=17


Awesome on you! :hi: :wow: ;)

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

7. I hadn't really considered publishing it

My father's WWII war experience has been documented and is available at the county Historical Society in the town we lived in for many years. I was thinking of seeing if they might want to keep a copy or two of this DVD on hand as part of his record.

But that's about as far as my thinking has gone-- so far.

[Lars39]

9. I'm getting geared up to do this.

My dad had been taking pictures since the late '30s....he even developed his own black and white photos for about a decade. I'm open to any advice you would be so kind to give as far as organizing goes. It's almost overwhelming, but I've got to get going on it while the elders are still alive to tell me who some of the people are in the photos. :hi:

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

11. You'll organize best by doing it BEFORE you start scanning.

That way it's not much of a task to name the files appropriately thus saving confusion later on.

I did it the long, hard way- I scanned each photo at as high a resolution as my computer could work, then I cropped, cleaned up, and only then did I shrink the photos to a standard size. I saved them as uncompressed TIF files then I resized them again and saved them as .JPG files for possible on-line sharing later on.

Adobe Photoshop is the best program to use- I still use version 5.5 for my serious work.

I use an Epson photo scanner- it has great software with it. Color restoration and backlight correction is a breeze, plus you can crop before you scan. Real time savers.

[Lars39]

14. Thanks for the information!

I've got thousands of photos to work with. I've got an Epson CX8400. Did you use tag the photos? I've got so many I'm thinking I'll have to get some tagging software so the family can actually find the photos they want at a particular time.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

10. My dear Prisoner_Number_Six!

Oh, good for you!

I remember your talking about this, and I'm so glad to hear both that you're done and that you had additional pics to work with.

A labor of love, and all the folks in your family who come after you are gone will owe you a huge debt!

:hug:

You have discovered the treasury of memory...

[Kali]

12. Excellent!

So many have good intentions about doing things like this, but so few of us do it. I am curious if you included some kind of labels or data with the pix? How did you do that?

[Prisoner_Number_Six]

13. Since it was meant to be viewed by the family, I included no labels.

Didn't think it was vital. However, my sister said she recognized all but a couple faces- perhaps I'll ask her to provide names and places. It would be a lot of extra work, but there won't be another chance to do it the right way!

[Bertha Venation]

15. Excellent.

Who needs a contest? Sounds like you have your reward.

:yourock:

[applegrove]

16. What a cute photo. I did the same thing with three boxes of family photos & letters. I finished it

in 2006 and haven't burned it onto CD for the 40 families it affect. I'll get on that. Sooner rather than later.