Preserving Family History

Family History
Photo-A-Day #1687

I’m working on a little family project this weekend and so I have the old scanner fired up and running like crazy. My mom gave me these metal photos of her family. They are pretty amazing.

I love old time photos and how they look. Everyone was so dressed up in them and you don’t see many of them that are bad. Being Photographed was an event in that time. It was rare for photos to be taken as they are done today. I guess with novelty and ease of access to cameras it can easily make photos commonplace. But, when photos and cameras were rare so much more time was taken to make sure that photos were well made. Looking at these makes me rethink my approach to taking photos and making photos.

13 thoughts on “Preserving Family History”

    1. Roentarre,
      Yes they are very important to keep. I’m just making some copies of these but since they are tintypes (I think that is what they are) they are irreplaceable.

    1. Damien,
      Thank you. I hope I was expressing things right about what I thought about old time photos and how photography was so special. Yes we don’t see how incredible photography really is because it is so easy for anyone to use a camera. While it is good that anyone and everyone can have access to the technology photography has lost its wonder, that is until you see photos taken by real masters of the craft.

  1. It is very interesting looking at old photos. Even more so when you known who they are of and their relationship to yourself. Thanks for working on that project.

  2. From 1860’s until the 1940’s Photographers traveled around the country to make their living. Taking a photo was an all day event because a photographer wasn’t always around. Everyone dressed in their Sunday best and the whole family gathered including cousins grandparents etc. Many were lucky to have a photo taken at all throughout their lifetime. I love these old photos and have a few of our family member too. They are a real treasure to hold on to.
    .-= Look at what Deborah wrote blog ..Welcome to FeedBurner =-.

  3. I’m NUTS about old photography. All sorts. I’ve been a history buff my entire life, but for the last decade or so I’ve been digging deep into my own genealogy. Like you, I have way more projects than time right now. One of those projects is to scan the huge stack of old photographs I collected from my dad & grandmother. Hopefully soon!! I’ll be sure to share when I do. 🙂

    1. Eddie,
      I’ve found that scanning them all at once and leaving them as panel scans is one step closer to cropping each one and turning them into something you can work with.

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