Tuesday, February 22, 2011

photo chronicles

I better get on the ball... two whole people have already called me out for not posting yet today. Musn't disappoint my adoring fans! All... two of them.

Last June my mom and I went out to IN to clean out her parents' house prior to an estate sale. There was a lot to get through, but we both walked away with some goodies (e.g., basically every "grown up" piece of furniture in my house). Part of the loot my mom took were slides spanning the gamut from her youth up to the early years of mine, and maybe even my brother's.

This got me thinking that I should gift her a slide/photo converter for Christmas so these pictures could be viewed more easily. An added bonus was that this gift could also be used to convert the 2boxes of slides my parents already had at home. This was important to me because my childhood was on those slides - pictures I didn't often get a chance to look at.

So for Christmas I somewhat selfishly bought my mom a converter for Christmas. As part of the gift, I was also going to spend my time at home scanning some of the images. Coincidentally - and I also think somewhat selfishly - my mom bought my dad a converter for Christmas. I found this out a few days before the holiday and was equally dismayed and amused over the similar gifts under the tree. It turns out that it was actually serendipitous because the scanners performed different functions, that were absolutely necessary for the task at hand (scanning mounted slides, negatives, and actual photographs).

You see, in the week between Christmas and New Years - those 7 measly days - I scanned upward of 3600pictures.

Did you catch that? More than three thousand six hundred pictures. I am the best daughter. EVER.

Those 3slide wheels my mom brought home from IN were nothing compared to the 2boxes of slides and photos my parents already had in the house. PLUS those 3600 didn't even clear the house of everything. I managed to scan everything from about 1967-1990 in it's entirety, but there are still all of my pictures. Here in ME (since there were now 2 in the family, I took a converter with me) I've managed to scan most of 2002-2006 (after which I finally got a digital camera), but I still have all of my pictures from pre-2002 back in Reston, which will be making their way up here at some point. And there are also the "lost" pictures - our trip to Rome, my grandparent's trip to Germany - that are still somewhere to be found.

The point of all this back story is to stay that I now have thousands - literally - of digital pictures available to me (at this point: 6218), and as such I'm going to periodically share some here. 

I introduce you to baby me: (click to embiggen)


7 comments:

  1. aww baby meghan!

    p.s. I think you have more than just two adoring fans. :)

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  2. Aw, I love photos from the 80s!! All grainy and slightly orange, with rounded corners. good times. I love the photo with your legs sticking through the crib. Cute.

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  3. Wow, scanning all of those photos must have taken quite some time (and patience)! You ARE a good daughter. The last photo of your legs dangling from the crib cracks me up...how on Earth could you have been comfortable?

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  4. Don't forget a backup hard dive to store the images. And keep a second copy on a different drive as backups can go bad too (ask me how I know)

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  5. the only advice i would have for pictures and such is...don't keep them by your collections of matches and kindling. or something.

    SO CUTE! you were and you still are. rawr.

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  6. make sure that your backup drive and your toaster do not play together. know how I can tell you persevered through a dissertation? 3600 photos and counting... wow!

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  7. OMG Cute! The crib shot is awesome! Think of all the Chistmas gifts for the future, just print & frame.

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