bringing the past into the present

One thing that has resounded with me watching the copious media footage of the floods in these parts is that nearly everyone interviewed, who have lost everything, say the hardest part is losing their photos.

I have always LOVED photos and I remember on our journey to Australia worrying about something happening to my hundreds..(maybe thousands?) of photos and negatives... because sometimes containers fall off ships in transit (hence the insurance you pay..in case they need to salvage it..eek!)

image from thecontainerplace.co.uk

So this time I was prepared. All of our wedding photos, my eldest daughter's first two years and my son's newborn piccys are on negatives.

I picked up this nifty (and pretty cheap at ALDI) negative scanner.


Its so easy to use. You just clip your negative strip in the holder and pass it through. The little screen shows you the picture and you press OK and it saves it to a camera memory stick. Which I then just plug into the laptop and voila!! Digital copies of our photos!! Yippee!!

Now of course they aren't as high resolution as the photos we currently take but they are pretty good and if all else is lost they will be precious! Including this one of special people...

My special Uncle Jack (who passed away last weekend) and my beautiful Aunty Nita (who was waiting for him in Heaven).

And the best bit is, I can now crop them, play around with them, etc.

I just need to learn one thing - constantly watch for dust!!! quite a few have little specks on them so I'll need to redo those.

Im now going to save it all to the external hard drive for extra insurance.

I LOVE technology!!! Now the scanner is packed in my suitcase because apparently I am making a start on my Mum's and sister's negatives...lol...