One of the projects I’ve been doing these days when I’ve been unable to go into work (basically, we went in Monday and that was it for the week) is scanning in negatives from the Bad Old Days when I had to use film to take photographs.
A couple of years ago dad and I co-purchased a nice slide/negative scanner (plustek OpticFilm 7200) and a staticmaster brush (with polonium!) so that we could each scan in our slides & film negatives. I had it for awhile and barely did anything with it, so then I let dad use it and he pretty much scanned everything that he wanted to. So I decided to give it another go, starting with my 1998 trip to Australia & New Zealand. I’ve now got 5 of the 14 (!!!) rolls scanned, and have 120 photos thus far. Alas, I’m disappointed that the images aren’t as crisp as I’ve gotten used to with today’s goof proof digital cameras. But I’ve found a few photos that I really like so far.
My favorite so far is an odd little shot. It’s from Sydney Harbor and isn’t a typical tourist shot. But I loved the play of the colors. I fiddled about with Photoshop to see if I could exaggerate the colors some, so I’ll let you decide if I’m just odd, or if you, too, think it’s a nifty little shot.
Seagulls at Sydney Harbor.
I decided to include a shot of me sitting in front of Mrs Macquarie’s Road, just for grins. One of the few shots of me in all of the rolls, thankfully. 🙂
Me and Mrs Macquarie’s Road.
I’ve included two others as well.
A sailboat at the harbor.
Sydney at night.
I quite like that first shot too–it’s more alive than most typical touristy photos are.
Thanks (belatedly)! There’s another shot that I like cuz of all of the colors in it – and it’s of recycle & rubbish bins, litter, and birds. 😉 Yup, I’m one of those “special” tourists!
Trina, you look the same now as you did then. Does that mean that you don’t look 40 today or that you looked 40 back then… I’ll go with the first choice. Love, MUM
I know exactly where you stood to take that photo of the bridge; it hasn’t changed one bit since then! That green and gold ferry is still in daily use. Though, the Sydney cityscape certainly has. There’s a lot more sheer glass-sided buildings and a smattering of really weird architecture on the apartments (like the controversial ‘toaster’ built beside the harbor, which really does look exactly like a toaster). There is something to be said to go back to older tech, these photos have a character like music played from vinyl rather than mp3.
They may have a character, but like vinyl, they’re a PITA to work with. 😉 (Yes, I still have all of my albums, but I’ve bought CDs of most of them and made digital copies of ones that won’t ever make it to CD/MP3. Helps that I’m hard of hearing and, for the most part, don’t notice any degradation. At least I don’t have pops, clicks, or hisses!) That’s fun to know that the area where I snapped those seagulls hasn’t changed. It would be interesting to see the city again – the Olympics happened between my first visit and whenever my next (if any) will be. 🙂