Sharing Old Pictures...And What I Didn't Expect To Happen

A couple of months ago I saw an ad on my Instagram feed, and I bit. The ad was for an app called Slidebox. Basically, you use your phone to take pictures of your old slide photographs (remember those...?) and they'll magically be digitized into your Photo Library.

I downloaded the app so at a future date I could dig out my old mission pictures and finally make them available to share and enjoy.

Last weekend, I thought it was time.

I didn't read the small print when I downloaded the app. In order to use it, you have to pay $5.99/mth. Bummer, I thought. But, they had a three-day free trial. I signed up for the free trial and the clock was ticking.

In the next two days, I scanned hundreds of pictures from my mission in Denmark.

I lived in Denmark from April 1985 to January 1987. I took my trusty Olympus OM-10 with me and took a lot of photographs. Because I wanted the pictures to stand the test of time, I had the all developed as slides--I had no way of even imaging the digital photography or storage capabilities of today back then. Slides are great for preservation, but not so great for sharing. Most of the pictures I took back then have never been seen by my family, and that's a shame.

I thought the app would be a way for me to change that. The app was descent, but in order to work well, you need a good backlight system. The best I could find was my iPad. But, there's a problem taking photographs using a computer/tablet screen. The light isn't constant and many times that spilled onto the finished photo. Maybe one day I'll set up a good backlight and try it again.

I converted the slides and posted a couple on Facebook. Just going through picture after picture brought back a ton of memories, but the most bittersweet ones were reserved for those who are no longer with us. I posted a picture of a good friend who passed away many years ago. He died so young with a young family and so much promise. After posting the picture I received a message from his spouse who said she had never seen that shot before.

That's when it hit me--the pictures mean a lot to other people, too. 

I'm going to post more pictures and tag those I can remember. Some may love it--some may find it a nuisance, and some may hate seeing themselves from over thirty years ago. But, for some, the pictures may be a way of communication that's been hidden away for decades, finally allowing others to see them, and after all, isn't that the reason we take photographs in the first place?