The Great Scan Redux

Mimi: the spitz we had growing up. She was a one person dog  and would snap at anyone who was not my father

My father in his 20s. He had red hair I broke a long chain of redheads with my dishwater blonde hair but the chain temporarily resumed with Naomi's hair

I like this shot of my mom

My 7th birthday with my best friend Michelle on my left. She was a beauty. I lost track of her after college but fortunately she had an unusual name and I think I found her brother, a chiropractor in Syracuse. There are few pictures of me past the age of 5 as my photographer father said I was not photogenic. Well I guess he had a point

My brother

My brother on Suzie the homicidal donkey at my mom's cousin's dairy farm we often went to. Suzie  hated riders and would often refuse to move even when prodded. Then she's suddenly take off and try to maim the rider trying for clothesline decapitation and then running as close as possible to a stone wall. She was replaced by Sugar the Palomino who also hated to work but she at least didn't try to kill us.

My brother. Not sure where this was taken

My father had the knack of making me look even more hideous than I probably was

My brother was cuter. Really bad haircut though

I am in here somewhere

My father overlooking Barton Pond outside of Ann Arbor

Me: Born fat

My grandfather was quite the gardener. I love the dahlias

My brother on a Florida trip

My favorite kitty Pebbles: I once was surprised to find a poster of her in my daughter's 7th grade classroom.

Our house in Corning, NY just south of the Finger Lakes and the snow belt

My grandfather's house, about 4.5 miles away from where we live now. My grandfather made those terraces  himself. This house is an area full of cutting edge architecture. Some dismissively refered to this house as "Tara".

I think this is me on the same trip. I was 12

Our new toy is a slide scanner. Positives: Easy to use and cheap. Downsides: Only works on old PCs and only does 35 mm slides and negatives. Well we have plenty of old computers. Steve so far has just done a fraction of what we have. Before we were married, he mostly used slide film. And we have some slides when Shanna was a baby.

All of the above were taken by my father. Some of the slides were taken in the 40s so there has been some fading. In general, he hated 35 mm cameras as the lenses associated with them were not good enough to produce photos capable of being blown up to 16x20s.  His principal job was being an analytical chemist for the glass division of Ford. In New York, he did research for The Corning Glass works. However almost all of his non-work time was devoted to photography. He had a successful side line selling  his photos to stock photography warehouses, a business that now is ruined by digital photography. He had received as much as $3000 for a high quality 4x6 used in a Canadian whiskey ad. These stock photography businesses have gradually been sending me back all of his transparencies in which I found just a few family pictures.

Before I was five, I was deemed 'cute' so there are plenty of  16x20 prints of me. Damn little of me after that. Over his lifetime, he probably took close to a million photos, most of which were scenery and pet shots that appealed to potential buyers, calendar companies, ad agencies, etc. He won many photographic contests. He technically was very competent but his artistry was poor. He especially sucked at portraits though a few of my brother and mother above are quite good.

So today's job: start to turn this place into a X-mas wonderland. Ramy is out of town so we have Shanna and the kids later today.Should be fun!