Re: Duplicating Negatives (and shipping images)

[P3D D Cootey <shmoobee@xxxxxxxx>]

On Wed, 20 Aug 1997 08:44:27 -0500 "P3D Dr. George A. Themelis"
<fj834@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> writes:
>>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.

	I'll mention it to them.  Thanks for the suggestion.

>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.  

	That is a lot of mailing.  Glad to hear you've had such good luck
getting all your slides back.

>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. 

	Yes, I wish my wife had mailed them certified.  Another thing
that is helpful is to stamp or write your address on the film rolls...

>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.)

	Well, I appreciate your comments, George, and if it was slides of
art I had lost I would agree with your sentiment.  I rarely like what I
did years ago and am often embarrassed by it because my skill has
improved so much over time.  However, it was rolls of undeveloped family
photos of my little girls that were lost.  Not art at all, but priceless
and irreplaceable none the less.  There were a lot of memories in those
rolls, which is why it was so traumatic for my wife and I.  Since *some*
of the 3D photos I have taken feature the kids, I don't want to risk
losing those memories again, which was why I was looking into duping the
negatives.  I certainly didn't want to discourage folks from sharing
their 3D photos.  I can appreciate that frustration.  I have a distant
relative who has the only photo of my great great grandfather that I know
of.  Yet he won't bring it to a photo lab to have duplicated because he
doesn't want to let it leave his sight.  The best he's done for me is
mail me a xerox.  I truly wish he'd trust the professionals.  Things
rarely go wrong.  As for the film, I just want to make a copy as a
precaution so that I can ship my film to the four winds without
reservation. ;)  Sorry it took so long to get back to you.  I've been
kinda busy...


Douglas "D" Cootey - Elfin Artworks
http://users.itsnet.com/~bug/absent.html

"Using my Nishika makes me a four-eyed 3D geek!!"
	


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