Digging deep in the travel archive by ankers70

Digging deep in the travel archive

I took this photo in 1986, roughly thirty years earlier than yesterday's photo, also from the travel archive. It was taken at Cape Gloucester, west New Britain, Papua New Guinea. I think it has come out rather well, considering it was taken on my old Pentax film camera, and printed many years ago. The print was really deteriorating in quality but came up better than I had hoped when scanned and edited.

I am going through all my old photos and photo albums and scanning and collating. It all takes time!
What a great shot. When we were in lockdown I scanned and edited old photo's. It is quite time consuming isn't it. you have done well with this one.
September 22nd, 2024  
I like to follow your archive; it is very interesting to see those photos.
September 23rd, 2024  
Fascinating capture and expression. Sounds like a lot of work Suzanne, I am looking forward to seeing your travels.
September 23rd, 2024  
Wow, it really has come up well from a photo that old...and such a great idea to digitise older travel shots.
September 23rd, 2024  
Outstanding result.
September 23rd, 2024  
What a worthwhile project. The time spent will give you so many super digitized images which won't deteriorate..
September 23rd, 2024  
Loving your travel photos, more please!
September 23rd, 2024  
Those projects such a long time!
September 23rd, 2024  
Her hair - she looks like a sculpture. It must have been amazing to be in that part of the world.
September 23rd, 2024  
Full of character. Saving and updating, great idea.
September 23rd, 2024  
Yes it is time consuming, Babs. I have bursts of energetic application to the task, with moments of great enjoyment as I find
'treasures' then I have to put it away for a while.
@onewing
September 23rd, 2024  
Thankyou. @wh2021
September 23rd, 2024  
We have downsized and simply have no space for all the photograph albums I made over the years and, as well, they are deteriorating so it's an essential job.
@leggzy
September 23rd, 2024  
This lovely lady was very curious as she had never seen a camera before and as it was pre-digital I couldn't show her the photo. I did send a print when I returned to Australia but whether she ever received it, I don't know.
@ludwigsdiana
September 23rd, 2024  
Many thanks, Brian.
@briaan
September 23rd, 2024  
Many thanks, Andrew. As I said above, I have a burst of energy and interest then I have to put it away for a while as it is time-consuming and addles my aging brain a bit trying to collate, classify, edit and back up and make sure I haven't missed anything before getting rid of the originals. There may be a few more than I shall take a break.
@allsop
September 23rd, 2024  
Indeed they do! @pusspup
September 23rd, 2024  
Her hair is covered in ochre red mud.

It was amazing to be in that part of the world, in the early to mid 1980s where the second world war had come and gone (inc the battle of Cape Gloucester: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Cape_Gloucester) leaving its detritus behind but not many benefits to the local people. Even in 1986, there were very few foreign visitors apart from the Burns Philp trade boats and many islanders had not seen foreigners as during the war they hid in the hills.

@yaorenliu
September 23rd, 2024  
See all my other comments. The main issue is that the prints are deteriorating and, in any case, they take up space that we not longer can spare. @clifford
September 23rd, 2024  
Wonderful story here
September 24th, 2024  
I'm enjoying your old travel shots--this one is amazing. A few years ago I redid my old albums, reorganizing them and scanning some of the pictures. Now I'm beginning to scan again. Like you, I work in spurts. I'm also wondering what's the best way to get my thousands of digital football pictures under control.
September 24th, 2024  
@ankers70 totally understand, and have to agree as I have photos from back in that era that seem to be fading in the colour department - not sure if it's the albums we used back then that weren't acid free, or just the way photos were developed back then? But anyway, a massive job that you're undertaking, but at least you get to reminisce on the memories as you sort through them. It's something that I should probably do too!
September 24th, 2024  
Thankyou for your interest. I have developed my own heirarchical folder filing system for digital images. In each folder of photos I have a Word document where I have recorded notes about particular events etc. I keep a journal, so relevant notes from my journal of the particular time are transcribed into that Word document. It's a bit more cumbersome than keeping track of my photos in a program like Photos on Mac or even Lightroom Classic, but it works for me. I tried just using keywords but I found the keyword system didn't cover everything I wanted to say about particular images or batches of images, for instance the memories or the people, lots of things.
@eudora
September 24th, 2024  
I think you're right about the albums. I had many with that cellophane covering them and strips of glue on the pages and the photos in those albums faded and discoloured a lot. I think also that in the early days of quick colour processing, the machines were not always cleaned well and I had some from particular places that discoloured badly. The good news is that I am finding that digital editing programs are pretty good at bringing them back. I do make sure to scan prints at very high dpi.
@leggzy
September 24th, 2024  
Many thanks and many thanks for your regular visits to my photos.
I do appreciate it even if I do not always get back to you quickly.
@365projectorgchristine
September 24th, 2024  
@ankers70 can I ask what editing program you're using? And also what dpi you're scanning at?
September 24th, 2024  
I scan at 300 dpi mostly although for some particularly precious prints I scan at 600.

I use Lightroom Classic for basic editing and I am trying to boost my skills in Photoshop. That's all really. I sometimes use PicMonkey.

NB. My email address is in my profile if you want to email about any of this. I am learning as I go
September 24th, 2024  
I just checked my scanner, and it appears to only go to 600dpi. Not sure if that would be adequate?
September 24th, 2024  
600 is the highest I go, but mostly 300dpi. 600 dpi just for precious things.
@leggzy
September 24th, 2024  
@ankers70 thanks so much for all the info!
September 24th, 2024  
So interesting to see this photo and read what you have shared with us.
September 24th, 2024  
Thankyou. I think that managing photos is a really big issue, especially in this digital age. @lynnz
September 24th, 2024  
@ankers70 That's a great idea, to pair photos with notes or journal entries. Keywords are fine, but they really don't say enough. Thanks for the ideas!
September 25th, 2024  
Glad to hear that!
@eudora
September 25th, 2024  
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