Re: Duplicating Negatives (and shipping images)

[P3D Dr. George A. Themelis <fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

>My first question, how do you folks go about duplicating your negatives?

Film duplication has traditionally been a concern for users of slide film
because slides are originals and they need to be duplicated to make copies.

I bet your lab can use slide duplication film to duplicate your
negatives and I am surprised that they did not mention this as an option.

Regarding the reasons for wanting to duplicate your negatives, I have
personally sent hundreds of precious original slides all over the world
without ever losing anything.  I belong to 3 circuits of the Stereoscopic
Society.  In every circuit I enter 5-6 slides a year which I get back about
a year later after they have circulated among the 20 or so members of the 
group.  That's a lot of mailings!  Some of these circuits are international
and travel between USA, England, Australia, New Zealand.  It takes about
3 years to come back, but they eventually do come back.  I also send slides
(4 at a time) to PSA International Exhibitions and I recently mailed out
slides that have received PSA awards for the "PSA Image of the Year"
competition.  These are my best (original) slides.  

It is a fact that packages or envelops do not get lost.  But the
probability of that happening is so low that it is not worth worrying
about it.  And if it happens, it is not the end of the world.  I am not
saying this to prove that your concerns are not valid (you said that you
have lost some negatives in the mail), but to encourage people to try and 
overcome the fear of losing their images and to participate in image-
sharing activities because the benefits of doing so greatly overcome the
slight risk.  Also, you can mail certified and request return receipt.  
This will make it possible to trace the letter/package and greatly
minimize the already very low risk.  

Until I got started with SSA and PSA I was afraid to death to ship my 
precious images.  The funny thing is that today I could not care less if 
I lost these pictures that I treasured a couple of years ago, because my
standards and quality of work has changed with time (thanks, in part, to 
my participation in these slide-sharing activities.)

George Themelis


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