We have so many photo albums because we’ve always been a camera family. And you know how parents are especially when the kids are very young — films and processing were a necessary part of our monthly budget.
Well, photos fade. Even the negatives don’t last that long. For the past so many years — I think as early as the day I bought my first digital camera — I had been planning on getting a flatbed scanner to convert all the girls’ photos in digital format. At least, I wouldn’t worry anymore about discoloration, moisture damage, etcetera. I vow I’ll do that over the Christmas break. And I’ll ask the girls to help.
The old home movies, I don’t worry about anymore. My brother converted the VHS tapes to DVD and we’ve been watching and rewatching movies of Sam and Alex when they were very young. But because there were no high resolution home video cameras a decade ago, screen captures of the converted movies are only clear if kept in small sizes. Meaning? Okay, look at the photos of Sam and Alex below.
Those were taken from videos. Speedy did the screen captures — I still need to figure out how to do that on my Mac. From what I’ve read, Mac’s movie player was so constructed to prevent screen captures. Argh! Anyway, in video format, they fill up the TV screen or the computer monitor. But, as still photos, if I save them in sizes larger than that, they pixellate.
The parents of this generation, you who have young children today, you are so lucky. There are high resolution home video cameras that create movies from which better still photos can be captured.
I can only hope that I will have better luck with the printed photos and the flatbed scanner. If we can finish three albums everyday, we should be able to finish everything in… three months??? Kidding, kidding. But there are A LOT of photos to be scanned, really. And I have a briefcase bulging with the kids’ sketches and paintings, and I want to scan those too. Needless to say, when the job is completed, we’ll have lots of space in the house. See? Not only will we be saving the old photos and art work, it’ll be like a general cleaning too. 
What’s a flatbed scanner? Is that like a regular scanner?
I’ve been meaning to get myself a scanner too so I can scan our wedding pics, my old pics, and some of my kids’ pics. Now that you’ve mentioned it, baka mas maganda nga iyan.
Also, love the helmet hair of your kids…ganyan na ngayon buhok ng mga anak ko and they hate me for it. They want their long hair back and not He-man’s hairdo
Flatbed scanner looks like a small photocopying machine — especially made for documents. The printer scanner is the upright model where you drop the document to be copied into a slot. It can’t scan book pages.
Re hair, LOL gosh the way toddlers move non-stop, getting the helmet straight was torture. And hirap gupitan. And the moment they were old enough to decide, hay, away with the helmets hahahahaha
Buti ka pa organized ang mga photo albums mo. Me? I don’t know kung paano ko aayusin ang mga kahon-kahon na pictures dito.
When my kids were still small, I would immediately put in albums our pictures, complete with captions pa. But as time went on – got busy doing this and that, going here and there. Kaya naipon tuloy.
Looking at those pics of Sam and Alex – I guess Alex is the more glamorous type, and Sam the alaskadora? hehehe. I remember my daughter also used to pose same way as Alex did. And now at 17, naku – napaka-fashionista and sociable niya.
“When my kids were still small, I would immediately put in albums our pictures, complete with captions pa. But as time went on – got busy doing this and that, going here and there. Kaya naipon tuloy. ”
Naku, ako din. Pati negatives, naka-file. Then, they started school and things got hectic. Then, I went back to work when they were in grade school. Thank goodness talaga for digital cameras.
“Alex is the more glamorous type, and Sam the alaskadora?”
Exactly hehehehe Nanay na nanay ka talaga, you know about kids’ character just by looking at how they project themselves on camera.
although this got nothing much to do with your flatbed scanner and scanning pics of your family’s old photo.. i just want you to take a look at this and maybe you can share your thoughts… http://www.zeitgeistmovie.com/
thanks miss sass really appreciate your views and reviews on things. If there was Nostradamos… this Zeitgeist is of things of the past and of things to come… no, not really… damn, my thoughts not working well again… sorry…
Nostradamos are prophecies of things to come..
Zeitgeist is a “documentary” movie of the LIES and the plan of few elitist for world dominance. I hope i got it right… if not… pls miss sass Do correct me…
kung hindi po pala makakaabala…. sorry, alam ko marami kang ginagawa, projects, and works to do, if you have the time…pls watch zeitgeist movie kinakailangan mo pang i download kasi at maykatagalan ang pagdownload… kung hindi mo mamasamain at kung may panahon ka… it is really a thinking movie and i think magugustuhan mo kasi ….basta panoorin mo na lang kung may time ka at hindi makakaabala… salamat ng marami. (Rosario)
I scanned some of our prints months ago. The thing is, we weren’t able to bring all of the photo albums that we have kasi mabigat, so kung ano lang ang meron kami, yun lang ang na-scan ko. Pero it’s going to be a big project if I scan all our photos — my photos especially, since my mom took a bunch of photos when I was a kid.
Hehe, may fringes/bangs din pala sila Sam at Alex when they were kids XD
Rosario, ikaw ba talaga yan?? naku sayang nahuli, i just submitted my column. that would have been a great topic. ‘Di bale, for Thursday. Thanks, She!
Angela, o ‘di ba, in case of moves like in you case, scanned photos are much much easier to transport. Bakit “may bangs/fringes din pala”, ikaw din nung bata ka? Lahat naman yata ng little girls eh.
Hi, Connie! Your daughters’ beautiful pictures make me wish I have daughters as well (I have 2 sons)! And you just gave me a great idea for my next blog entry– my cross-dressing toddlers, haha! ( I used to dress them up as little girls, so bad of me talaga. I’ve been lucky that my sons don’t have gender identity issues because of me.)
Do you think you’ll be able to part with the hard copies of their art work once you’ve scanned them? I’ve done some of the transfer work from paper to digital copies but I can’t seem to let go of the originals. I keep telling myself that the digital copies are good enough and I’ll don’t have to wait for the paper to disintegrate before I let go some of them. Any suggestions on how I can prepare myself for the big break?
Hi Connie. And scan titles and deeds too for safekeeping.
hi ms. connie. besides building my photo memoirs & scanning them, i’m also into scanning my traditional scrapbook albums. kahit na 12×12 usually ang scrapbook pages, buti na lang na-invent ang photostitching. that way, may scrapbook hard copy ka na wherein mahahawakan mo yung 3d page, may digital (soft) copy pa.
Connie,
Maybe you should try Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for photo cataloging and quick retouch.
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
may 30-day trial nyan. try mo
bakit hindi na under moderations ang mga comments?
Kittymama, naku I’m not senti in that sense. Basta may digital copy na, happy na ako hehehe Siguro isipin mo na lang that paper is just paper and what’s really important is the substance — and that you can preserve in digital format.
Em, I’ll leave that to my hubby. He keeps all the stuff. Weird, ‘no, considering I’m the lawyer. But he’s more masinop with those things.
Naku, Pao, that is great. Scrapbooks kasi are art works by themselves. The time people spent creating them, it’s sad that they really can’t last for decades without disintegrating.
Kotsengkuba, re #12. woo, it’s included in the CS3 box. When I get a new Mac, it’ll come with a CS3 hehehe Re #13. Nakaka-ubos ng oras eh. I have three active blogs, eh, hindi biro mag-moderate. Besides, Akismet Spam Filter has improved a lot. It can filter the unwanted shit quite well now.
You oughta look for negative/film scanning services, I think. No need to print, just feed the film/negative and scanned na siya. Di ko lang lam kung saan available.
Sassy, Jon, that’s what the YKL Fujifilm service me and a partner started two years ago – The Digital Q (shameless plug, I know, haha) does with film and print conversions and archiving. We even do video conversion and digital editing as well. The problem with buying scanners is that, after you’ve scanned all your stuff, now what do you do with it? So compare the cost in farming it out to a service that does all that for you as opposed to buying a scanner and doing it on your own which is easier said than done, actually. Anyway, consider the choices at your leisure.
Sass go to http://www.chimoosoft.com/products/ to download the CaptureMe screenshot software for the Mac. There are other neat and free programs there you can browse through too.
Jon I didn’t know you were related (cousins?) to a longtime photojournalist colleague and very good friend of mine, Claro Cortes IV. He’s based in Beijing now shooting for the Reuters bureau there.
Ben, thanks. For both info hehehehe
ben,
Nope, he’s my uncle — my father’s 2nd cousin.
He took pics of me naked as a child (pedo!!!), in black and white. Hehehehe.
Jon, are THOSE PHOTOS on display anywhere?? HAHAHAHAHAHA
Connie,
Nope. It’s in a photo album in some deep, dark corner of our house. LOL.
Scan mo, gawin nating meme hehehehehe
Yup Jon, just as I had long suspected about an old colleague, bwahaha. Kidding…yeah, keep those pics in a dark, on second thought – better just incinerate them.
I’ve also been plagued all my life with the question ‘are you related to Bob?’ Before that query used to annoy me. Now I just nod, ‘yeah i’m the bastard son’.
ben,
Hahaha… but my wife loves those pics ever since she’s seen them before we got married. LOL
Hey, where’s your shop? I have some old negatives that I need to have scanned… I’m not keen on printing them because that’d end up to be more expensive and tedious. Neither am I keen on giving up my old film SLR.