We completed a project to scan a large collection of 35mm slides for the MIT Museum in Cambridge, MA. These slides were copies of Harold Edgerton’s groundbreaking work in high speed and high-powered flash photography. Much of the original work was on medium and large format films. The University had these originals duplicated to 35mm slides some time ago. We scanned these slides for the Museum to use on the website and as “first versions” of the images for prints and licensing.

We all know Edgerton’s most famous work – milk splashing and balloons bursting. But this project gave us a look at the rest of his photography work – from utilitarian (e.g., night reconnoissance shots during WWII), academic (e.g., Schlieren photos of smoke and flame) and whimsical (e.g., fruit being destroyed by bullets).

Many of the scanned 35mm slide images are available on the Edgerton Collection website. It is well worth the time to look at some of this amazing work: Edgerton Collection

It is wonderful to help out a non-profit arts organization, and learn a bit about a new area at the same time.

(Photo Courtesy of Tile Heritage Foundation)

We often find that people scanning Kodachrome slides are unhappy with the cool cast of many of these slides, and with some of the more muted (if not more realistic) colors. We can warm these slides and boost saturation easily enough, but is it still Kodachrome? Have we violated the integrity of the images? Some in the archival sciences would say that doing so is a major harm here. However, for most of our customers, we aren’t doing work that is truly “archival” in the academic sense. Rather, we are preserving the memories in the slides. With this in mind, removing color casts and pulling details out of shadows is in line with our mission. What do you think?

A View to Hugh, the blog that goes along with the digitization effort at UNC is an interesting read, well worth a visit. Thanks to Stephen and his colleague Elizabeth Hull for the informative writing.

Over the last year we have scanned a very large collection of 35mm and 126 format negatives for the Watkins Photo Archive. Howard K. Watkins is a prolific shooter who captured a good deal of the social and political life during the 1970’s and 1980’s. This collection includes many images of politicians, entertainers, athletes, and life in the Fresno, CA area.

If you were active in the Fresno area over the last 30 years, Howard is looking for help in identifying all of the people and places in his shots. Please check out the website for details or to support this work.

(Header image courtesy of Howard K. Watkins.)