Project Digitisation: phase 1 nears completion

Even though I'm so untidy, I do like information to be organised.

In line with this, I've long wanted to make digital copies of things like my old photos and diaries.The ultimate aim - still a long way off - is to have a grab-in-case-of-fire hard disc (actually of course backed up elsewhere) containing all kinds of things I'd hate to lose access to.

Photographing every page of the diaries I've been keeping since childhood is proving a chore, even though each volume only takes a couple of hours to photograph. Once one is complete, I tie it with a piece of ribbon and stick a note on it to say it's all done - the idea is that it can then be stored away while I retain access to what I did that year. It's easy enough to stay on top of current volumes, but going backwards is a task that I keep putting off.
 
Similarly, photographing my favourite (print) photos is something I've failed to get into the routine of, but it wouldn't be too hard to tackle. All I'm planning on doing is taking a snap of every print in the photo albums I used from the late 70s until I went digital in the late 90s (I filled about one scrapbook a year). It's really just a matter of picking an album every (dry - some hope) day for a couple of weeks and heading out into the garden with my camera. Of course, this doesn't make the most perfect of copies - but they do serve the purpose of protecting against total loss of the memories. By way of example, I was thrilled recently to take this shot of a copy a friend still had of a picture from 1986 that means a lot to me (the first time I met Tim, although he was going out with a friend of mine at the time!). I can't find my copy - but now I don't mind!

I scanned all of my parents' slides a few years ago to mark their 50th anniversary. I'm also taking ad-hoc snaps of prints of old family photos - as with my own prints, there are far too many to contemplate capturing them all so I'm just concentrating on special ones, ones we get talking about, or ones where a copy is wanted to give to someone.

So with all these aspects dragging on, it's been nice to get to the end of one of the tasks - copying my collection of a few hundred slides.

(and Tim's, except that he's just found another box - ggggrrrrrrrr!)

Scanning is horribly time-consuming, so instead I've turned to my trusty first-ever digital camera, a Nikon Coolpix 950. It still takes good pics (albeit only at 2 megapixels, so fine if you don't need enlargements) and has particularly good macro capabilities. I've even tried infrared photography with it - not many modern cameras can do that. It was a very high end model at the time (I paid £450 for it new in about 2000 or 2001, about 18 months after it was launched, when I think it was more like £600). Boosting its versatility still further, there were various lenses and accessories made for it - including the ES-E28 slide/negative copier.

It's so easy - all you do is drop the slide or negative into the appropriate carrier, slide it in front of the lens, photograph it and continue until you're bored. The original slides - mostly from the 70s - aren't top quality and not all the shots have come out very well - but it certainly beats them sitting forgotten in a box.

Above: the view - with and without fog - from my bedroom when a third-year student in Bristol
Below: Solomon, circa 1974

I've a bit of tidying up still to do - eg changing the file names to include any information I have about dates, people or location - but the hard bit is done.

Now time to get stuck into the photo albums - or maybe the diaries....