Sorting the Past

Years ago, while we lived in South Dakota, I borrowed negatives of childhood-era photos from my mother and had prints made for myself. I was not terribly pleased with the results, but the copies were better than nothing. I don't know why the color is off--these were black and white negatives. Perhaps this was the result when making prints from b/w negatives on color print equipment. Perhaps it was also inferior quality ink, as it seems to me the prints are growing redder as time passes.

However, having these prints, plus the original prints from Mother's album (some of which are duplicated in the album), plus some prints I have made from my own recent scans, means that I have multiple copies of some photos, of varying quality and different sizes.

Before I put away the project before the holidays, I had scanned in quite a few of the small photos. By the time I got it out again, I'd lost track of what I had already scanned. So I put together pages of those scanned photos in small size (20 per page) and printed those proof sheets out. They are a great help in keeping track!

Then I decided to begin organizing this stage of the project by sorting out the photos to find the duplicates. Then I will organize chronologically, marking the ones I have already scanned. Then I can make prints of the ones that have those tiny originals or which can be improved by running them through the photo program. Then, finally, I'll be ready to make up the album pages.

Since I'm not really working at speed on this, I don't know when I'll finish. But just formulating a plan has already helped me feel engaged in the project again.

Starting the Sort