Blog - back to Film

[geogphotos]

Following on from the very lengthy thread about how to photograph old film slides I have made a beginning. 

 

I've started working through my old slides - most for Archive but some have been able to pass QC ( one attempt was misjudged and I failed so am pushing more to Archive now)

 

Also, I have been copying some work from other photographers ( where I own both slides and the copyright).

 

https://blog.geographyphotos.com

 

www.geographyphotos.com

 

Edited

Edited May 9, 2020 by geogphotos

[spacecadet]

1 hour ago, geogphotos said:

https://wordpress.com/post/blog.geographyphotos.com/1568

All I get there (it requires a login) is a message asking me if I'd like to create a site.

Edited May 9, 2020 by spacecadet

[geogphotos]

31 minutes ago, spacecadet said:

All I get there (it requires a login) is a message asking me if I'd like to create a site.

 

 

https://blog.geographyphotos.com

[geogphotos]

Trying to keep this going

 

https://blog.geographyphotos.com/2020/05/13/photographic-slides-and-copyright/

[Steve F]

47 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Trying to keep this going

 

https://blog.geographyphotos.com/2020/05/13/photographic-slides-and-copyright/

 

Totally irrelevant to me, but interesting blog. Keeps you busy I guess!

[Harry Harrison]

57 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

Trying to keep this going

Interesting overview, and it is great to give these pictures a new lease of life.

[geogphotos]

42 minutes ago, Steve F said:

 

Totally irrelevant to me, but interesting blog. Keeps you busy I guess!

 

 

Surely copyright is relevant to all of us.?

 

As to keeping busy, yes, I am enjoying myself working on these old images and learning bits and pieces along the way. Most don't have captions so there is some geographical detective work.

Edited May 13, 2020 by geogphotos

[geogphotos]

31 minutes ago, Harry Harrison said:

Interesting overview, and it is great to give these pictures a new lease of life.

 

Thanks Harry. 

[Steve F]

3 minutes ago, geogphotos said:

 

 

Surely copyright is relevant to all of us.?

 

As to keeping busy, yes, I am enjoying myself working on these old images and learning bits and pieces along the way. Most don't have captions so there is some geographical detective work.

Okay, copyright, yes true. Don't think I'll ever have anything to do with slides I meant. The detective work is frustrating and time consuming, but also can be fascinating when you get the story behind an image.

[geogphotos]

12 minutes ago, Steve F said:

Okay, copyright, yes true. Don't think I'll ever have anything to do with slides I meant. The detective work is frustrating and time consuming, but also can be fascinating when you get the story behind an image.

 

There are plenty that I just can't locate and that is really frustrating especially if it is a decent image.

 

I did this one and thought that I would be able to work out the location but haven't been able to. This came from a large collection that has been split up so I only have bits and pieces -one of the problems when the images are taken out of their context.

 

 

Canary Islands? Malta? 

 

Obviously a big harbour breakwater and a cruise ship in town.

 

I thought that the girl's striped clothes would lead somewhere but no luck as yet.

Edited May 13, 2020 by geogphotos

[spacecadet]

Well if there's a place to get it identified, this is as good as any.

[Allan Bell]

2 hours ago, geogphotos said:

 

There are plenty that I just can't locate and that is really frustrating especially if it is a decent image.

 

I did this one and thought that I would be able to work out the location but haven't been able to. This came from a large collection that has been split up so I only have bits and pieces -one of the problems when the images are taken out of their context.

 

 

Canary Islands? Malta? 

 

Obviously a big harbour breakwater and a cruise ship in town.

 

I thought that the girl's striped clothes would lead somewhere but no luck as yet.

 

I have just spent some time looking for the uniform on Google but no result I'm afraid. Used various connotations.

 

Allan

 

Going for my tea now.

 

ITMA

 

[geogphotos]

29 minutes ago, Allan Bell said:

 

I have just spent some time looking for the uniform on Google but no result I'm afraid. Used various connotations.

 

Allan

 

Going for my tea now.

 

ITMA

 

 

That was very kind of you Allan. 

 

I tried looking at various flags but found nothing similar.

 

The boots look unusual, then there's the basketwork, and the colour scheme on that shed in the background. 

 

I think I have one other similar to this but facing the cruise ship. Will have to dig it out for any more clues.

[geogphotos]

Got it.

 

Madeira 😀

 

Clever me.

[Thyrsis]

Ian’s father was an engineer for Balfour Beatty, building dams and harbours. In the 1950’s they lived in Aden and Peru and also travelled a lot. He was a very keen photographer so we have literally thousands of his images. They are mostly catalogued and annotated. Is there a market for 70 year old images of people and places if we take the time to upload them?

[geogphotos]

55 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

Ian’s father was an engineer for Balfour Beatty, building dams and harbours. In the 1950’s they lived in Aden and Peru and also travelled a lot. He was a very keen photographer so we have literally thousands of his images. They are mostly catalogued and annotated. Is there a market for 70 year old images of people and places if we take the time to upload them?

 

 

I really don't know if there is a market, I certainly haven't had any sales or views as yet. But then it is early days.

 

I guess that, as ever, the answer is that it depends what they are of. No actual reason that an old image would be any more saleable than a modern one if it is not of an interesting subject - in fact less saleable if it is a standard view of moorland scenery that hasn't changed etc

 

I have just uploaded a picture of a steamboat on the Mississippi in New Orleans called the President. It was built in the 1920s and is no longer in service:

 

"President is a steamboat that currently lies dismantled in Effingham, Illinois. Originally named Cincinnati, it was built in 1924^] and is the only remaining "Western Rivers" style sidewheel river excursion steamboat in the United States. She was listed on the National Register of Historic Places and declared a National Historic Landmark in 1989, although these designations were revoked in 2011".

 

So who knows somebody, one day might want a picture and there isn't all that much available?

 

I'd say that this is more a labour of love more than anything else but obviously some of these one-off subjects can't be copied and there are no time-machines. So who knows?

Edited May 20, 2020 by geogphotos

[geogphotos]

I was offered the entire collection of a famous geography author around 15 years ago. He had just died in his late 80s and his wife didn't know what to do with them. I regret that I turned them down as I was just so sick of scanning my own pictures at that point. Quite likely they ended up in the bin like a lot of similar stuff.

 

People are so busy and don't have the space. At auction I bought a really interesting collection which included childhood pictures and had the name of the child on one of the boxes. I used a bit of detective work and found an email for this baby of 1962. He just replied that his father's house was cleared and they had forgotten all about his photos. I doubt that they were ever actually looked at. Perhaps an interest that faded and these pristine images in lovely old Kodak boxes just chucked out years later. Trouble is this guy is busy running a major company and is not replying to my requests for permission. So I can't use them! 

 

I'd say even if there is no obvious market value today these things will become more rare simply because there is no real current financial value to them and they are getting disposed of as people die. 

Edited May 20, 2020 by geogphotos

[spacecadet]

58 minutes ago, Thyrsis said:

Ian’s father was an engineer for Balfour Beatty, building dams and harbours. In the 1950’s they lived in Aden and Peru and also travelled a lot. He was a very keen photographer so we have literally thousands of his images. They are mostly catalogued and annotated. Is there a market for 70 year old images of people and places if we take the time to upload them?

As Ian says, there's probably no point just adding more images of scenery unless it actually has a historical angle- something demolished or much changed. If he documented the building itself, that would be of interest in my book but of course I'm not a buyer. Maybe see if there are any shortages on Alamy of what you have.

My archival sales are of changed skylines, people now dead, modes of travel, street scenes, that sort of thing. Some sales are surprising, some not so much.

An example: my best seller is the Hill Valley Courthouse exterior from "Back to the Future". Although we don't usually give away our niches, I don't mind identifying it, because although it's still on the Universal Studios tour it has been much altered and no-one else has an image of it as it was seen in the film because they weren't there in 1992.

Another one: there 5,191 pictures of Trabis here, but not so many of a Trabi on a Budapest back street in 1992. In fact just the one. You get the idea.

As I use the archival route I'm pretty strict with myself about what is and isn't historical, and if it isn't, it's not here.

That said, my archival pseudo RPI is much, much higher than my main port.

[Thyrsis]

Maybe a project for next winter, too much to do in the garden now! And we’re still getting orders for framed prints.

[wiskerke]

As always AoA is your friend and advisor.

Plus I would do a quick scan in Google Images for some of the subjects and see how many are used commercially; not in family blogs.

And then go for some low hanging fruit. Try uploading that. If it works, maybe upload some more. After say a year or two you will know if there's a market.

 

wim