From: "Stan Halpin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi, Stan! Good points. > I wonder - no dates imprinted on the borders of the slide mounts? > Standard practice for most processors here in the states... Later slides, from early 60s onward do have month and year imprinted on the borders. However those from the 50s don't. It seems that many rolls from the 50s were just processed and not mounted, which he did himself (or he may have opened the original mount and mounted them in glass frames, without making any notes on when they were processed, or shot for that matter). > Two separate thoughts. > 1. Long ago and far away a friend and I assembled a "best of the > year" slide show based on slides contributed by members of our > climbing club. My friend was an editor with National Geographic, and > in her office she had a light table that has huge - probably 3 meters > by 1 meter. Made it very easy to lay out dozens and dozens and dozens > of slides, sort them, rearrange them... You might want to think about > how to improvise something like that to help in your sorting. I have two "table slide sorters" that will allow for some 30 and 40 slides being laid out. I'd have use for a couple of more though and have been thinking of making another one by using some glass plates and small lights. Maybe I can make use of an old flatbed scanner no longer in use and put a small light in there. > 2. This situation with your uncle's photos is a case where perfection > should not be the standard of success! Don't worry if you cannot > identify each and every person, each venue, and the dates associated. > Don't think like a historian or archivist, think like a photographer! I won't worry in case some shots will remain unidentified. There are for instance landscape views which are so general it would be impossible to identify where they were shot (although in many cases (by looking at previous or later shots of the same roll) I can pretty much assume around where it must have been shot, close to certain villages or parts of town etc.). And if I have to choose between thinking like a historian/archivist or like a photographer I will of course appöy my standrad method of approaching such options and choose both of them... :) However I think that by the help of other people I will be able to pin down dates to at least seasons of a year, and in some cases months and maybe even specific dates (Midsummer night's eve, Christmas, birthdays of young and old, are the kids able to walk yet, funerals, 1st of May, dates of major construction works, new street lamp posts, different types of antennas on the roofs, almost each year from the late 50s the local harbours have had new constructions being made to it, new streets being "asphalted" certain years, new pavements, dates of new ferry boats and ships (almost hundreds of them...), stores or offices being opened at certain adresses, particular official events, new car models, demolitions etc., etc.). > Go through and pick out "interesting" photos - those with good > natural portraits of people, good scenic and texture and detail. Yes, that's what I will eventually do. > Assemble a show and or publish a book of the photos. Get the citizens > to view the results, they will be glad to help with the > identification of the historical details. Get local historians and > librarians involved in the historical part, and you keep on digging > for the good photographs within the archive. Yes, I will go along those lines. Luckily I already personally know many people that will be of help, at the museum, people who have served in community planning, on boards of various companies and shipping lines etc. I just realized that I also could send a selection of photos to a few biologists who can give me an estimate as to when different types of trees, flowers and grass will bloom, or not yet ave done so or already did... Or a zoologist may estimate a date for young birds, or butterflies in case I'll spot any... In a few instances I think a farmer will be able to rougly guess a date depending on what farming tools are visible in a shot etc., or when cows were allowed/moved to certain areas etc.. I also realize - and I've been thinking about this many times before - that I also could make use some sort of a solar clock which would enable me to measure the angle/hight of the sunlight, since this actually will be more or less exactly repeated each year. I guess an astronomer could provide me with tables on that for each day. At least theorethically you could also accomplish this by making your own solar clock - a stick or a pole in the ground and then you you could shoot a picture of the shadow it will make each sunny day at certain times of day, both it's angle/direction and lenght, etc.. Then by looking at photos you could try to "read" the angle of sun light and determine around what date and time of the day it probably was shot. Or in many cases where constructions are still there I could go out and try to reshoot the picture and thus be able to determine a rough date for the original shot. > Best of luck. A great opportunity, interesting challenge. Yes, thanks. It takes a lot of time though and I'd really need to get som financial support for the project. Will try to see what may be available. Thanks, Lasse -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
