Log shed in snow, Deer Run Farm, McLemore Cove, northwest Georgia c1988.I bought my first Epson Perfection 4990 flatbed scanner around 20 years ago. It gave me great scans from transparencies and prints. When we sold our home and moved into an RV I took it with me, thinking I would scan some film and prints in the evenings when we were not traveling. Unfortunately, it flew off my desk when I was doing some hard braking and was damaged. Since that model is no longer made, when we were settled in our home in Knoxville I began looking online for a used one in good shape and recently found one. Since then I've been working out some kinks and brushing up on my scanning technique. Both pictures in today's post were scanned from 2-1/4 x 2-3/4-inch transparencies. In fact, my scanner is busily scanning as I write this.
Although both the Epson and my Minolta-DiMage scanners do a great job, they have one inherent flaw: they are slow, slow, slow. The Epson takes about 15 minutes to scan a transparency, and the Di-Mage takes ten to scan a slide. Scanning is an enjoyable way to kill and evening (better than watching TV) but unfortunately, I have a few thousand pictures on film that I would like to scan before I shuffle off this planet. I need a faster method.
Sunset over Lookout Mountain from McLemore Cove c1988.
Fortunately, a faster method exists, but I'm not yet set up to use it. It involves attaching a camera to a copy stand, using a special close-up lens called a macro lens, placing the slide or transparency on a lightbox, and making a digital copy of the picture. I have the camera, of course, and the lightbox, and recently acquired a Fujinon macro lens. But in a fit of absolute foolishness, I let my copy stand go in the estate sale when we sold our house. Now, it could cost me as much as $200 to replace it. Duh!!
So what am I going to do with all those photographs when I get them scanned? Honestly, I don't know. Some of them will appear on this blog of course. But other than that, I just like having a visual history of where I've been and what I've seen. Not that my great-grandkids are likely to care!
Both pictures were made around 1988 during our early days at the farm, with a Pentax 6x7, the 105mm f2.4 Takumar lens, and Kodak Ektachrome film.
Signed copies of my book Backroads and Byways of Georgia
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Check out the pictures at my online gallery: https://davejenkins.pixels.com/ Looking is free, and you might find something you like.
Photography and text copyright 2024 David B.Jenkins.
I post Monday, Wednesday, and Friday unless life gets in the way.
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