I want to thank the ones who helped me AW#36

I just want to thank On-the-rocks, Meg and Cujo359 for your comments to my blog post here; about being able to download slides to the computer.  Your suggestions have really come in handy and I really, really appreciate them a whole lot.  Words can not begin to describe how thankful I am to all of you.

As soon as I read On-the-rocks comment  this weekend, I went out to Best Buy and Radio Shack to see what they have.  I was able to pick up a Ion Film 2SD for about $70 (Tiger direct had them for $64 but this way I got it right away and I didn't have to pay shipping and handling. Plus they were able to show me how it work to make sure it was exactly what I wanted.)  Then have spent the rest of the weekend going down memory lane.  It may not be the best one out there, but it is so much better than nothing at all.  I went with this one because I could transfer the stuff to SD-cards which I later plan on storing in a lock box or a safe because they are so small and can store so much data.  The SD-card also lets me download it to the computer.

Some of the pictures have turned out great, and some not so great.  A lot has to do with the slides themselves.  I couldn't get over how some of the slides had faded or turn yellow so much.  I could tell different slide material - Kodak verse Fuji made a difference.  And some I know I took to professional photo shops to get developed while other times I took it to Wal-greens.  In the end you get what you paid for.  Being a poor college student at the time, I always went the cheapest route.  But I have gotten years and years of enjoyment out of them so I've always been grateful to have them.  Some of the ones that I have shown a lot - (I guess the bright light of the hot bulbs caused it) have really faded while others in that series that weren't shown as much have not. 
   Well I can't show you all of them but I can show you a few of what I'm talking about.

Here's one that turn out well, but I never had it printed up because the strobe for the flash was off and it didn't take the full shot - this is what I was thinking about when I wrote you never knew what type of photo you would get.  Unlike digital nowadays were you would just simply reshoot the shot.  Or photo edit it.  Which I did. 

 Can you guess who this is? - I'll give you a clue - he has had stuff in the geoblogsphere. ( Here's what I can do with it now-a-days with editing - does this help any more?.)

How about this one does that give you a better guess?

Here's a shot that I did have made into a photo and you can see the difference in the two.   I must admit because I was getting so many things developed at that time I did go the cheapest way possible with everything.  You  can see it yellowed a lot and the blues have faded but there is over 30 years of fading with the slide.  But like I said its better than nothing at all.  I did keep the photo in an album in a controlled environment, while the slides were stored in an attic that could have also led to some fading due to the storage conditions it was subjected to.

The shot was taken on July 4, 1977 while we were having a break during field camp.  We made an excursion over to Lake Tahoe, CA.  I thought that lake was the prettiest thing I had ever seen, this was after weeks and weeks in the desert with very little rain.  All that wonderful cold water.

Some of them aren't the best but they still bring back the memories.
 Like I'll never forget learning to repel at Clifton Rocks Ohio so that I could go rock climbing. Knowing those techniques were sure handy when we climbed to the top of Seneca Rocks in West Virginia.

Clifton Rocks, Ohio Oct 78

Clifton rocks Ohio, Oct 78

rock climbing at Clifton Rock, Ohio Oct 78

 

 Here I am  climbing up.  Someone else was using my camera and didn't know how to adjust the lenses for being in the shadows. So it was always dark to see, thus no prints made.

I was so proud to make it to the top of Seneca rocks and to add my name in that band-aid tin box that had peoples names had who made it up there.  There were not as many as I thought there would be.

Seneca Rocks, West Virginia at sunset.  May 1977

Or I'll never for get silly things people did on field trips.
Like this one where we were looking at an oolite (forgot to write down where the oolite was located just labeled the slide oolite.  Now I can't remember anything about it except it was somewhere near the east coast, in the mountains.)

Or my friends getting bored and decided to horse around on a log while we were studying the erosion process of the Chargin River, Ohio.

Or the geomorphology professor's field trip, where I'll never for get him showing us erosional features. With him going into his own world, not paying attention to any of the dangers,  but so excited about showing us things, and getting us just as interested as he was. Then to top it off we got a flat tire and the silliness that ensued with that..

 This was some feature associated with glaciers.   I think it may have been an end moraine, but I really can't remember exactly what it was.

Erosion on a river in Ohio

Here he is walking over this overhang not caring that there was about a 20 foot drop to the river below.  There was no way I was going to go over there and check out what he was so excited about. I could see the effects of river erosion very well just where I was.  Besides I didn't think that ledge could hold all of us.

 Then the flat tired happened and the field trip came to a complete stand still. We all just sat around and watched, well not all of us watched some did other more constructive things. There were just so many people that could help change a tire.  We made jokes about how many geologist does it take to change a tire and things along that line.

And then there are some pictures that seem to get better with age like this one of the sunrise over the north rim of the Grand Canyon.

or this sunset in Nevada on Highway 50.

Highway 50, Eureka Co, Nevada  July 1977

And finally here's the one image I wanted to share and got all the help with again thank you for getting a good image of Eureka, Nevada on July 19, 1977.

Oh the memories how wonderful they are, especially the ones of my loved ones that have moved on to other places.  Again Thanks for making this all possible.

Now I'm musing what photo editing program I should try to get these more back to their original colors.  When I get that figure out there probably will be more stuff to come.

Accretionary Wedge #36 - Whad do you regret leaving behind at a geologic locality?

 On the Rocks over at Geosciblog - Science has put out this call.

Call for Posts, AW #36

July 9, 2011 by lockwooddewitt

“What do you regret leaving behind at a geological locality?” In other words, what samples, specimens, or even photographs do you regret “not getting enough of”?
Read the full description at Geosciblog- Science; deadline is ~July 16.

In case you haven't noticed I love looking at other peoples pictures and taking pictures for myself.  The thing I regret most is not taking more pictures when I could have at any place I visited on a field trip but most especially at my field camp and my thesis location. There were a number of reasons why I never got enough photos.  The main one was not taking my camera to certain spots because I didn't want to get it ruined or it was too heavy. (below is shot of the different cases I used to use to carry my cameras.)

( Old case verses new case, quite a size different and load.  The older I get the less I want to carry in and out of the field.)

Or not owning a good camera sooner than I did.
  When I first got into geology, I realized having a good camera was a must for me.  I wanted to have keepsakes of all the wonderful field trips I was taking.  Now I just want to have a camera that works-- anything is better than nothing at all.  The smaller and lighter it is the more I like it- the more photos to be had.  Here's the different cameras - old verses new.

  Back in the 1970's, there were very few photos in the text books I was reading.  To really understand what the books were trying to teach you, you just had to go out in the field and see for yourself.  I saw some absolutely amazing examples of  geology such as anticlines with s & z micro folding in them demonstrating some structural geologic concepts. Or seeing some thrust faulting verses normal faulting.   Or going and seeing the clues that glaciation was a major reforming feature of the region.  These things were explained in the book, and I understood what they were getting at but once you saw it in person, you never would forget it.  I'm a visual learner and that is how I learn by seeing and feeling things.  Words usually go in one ear and out the other and if I'm really lucky some may stay stuck inbetween the two ears, while a pictures with it's beautiful colors and patterns just say with me for a long long time.  I just plan learn better seeing things and that was why I loved going on field trips so much and taking pictures.
    So in the 70's I got a very nice Olympus camera from a friend that was updating and getting a more advanced camera for himself. Not only did he sell me the camera it also came with all the darkroom equipment I needed to develop the films and pictures that I took.  I quickly learned that darkroom projects and I were not compatible.  To work in the darkroom first you had to have a very dark room (preferably no windows or a very small window that you can tape aluminum over to block the sunlight and light) and running water.  I found a room in my house in our attic that fit that bill and it became my study area (very hot in summer no a/c, poor ventilation,  trouble was it was also a working bathroom.)  But to do dark room work you needed long blocks of time- minimum of 2 hrs -where no one will open the door or let light in,  with it being a working bathroom it was hard to keep people out, so if I did work in it I had to wait until the other members of my family had gone to bed. I missed my sleep too much to stay up late developing photos.  The other draw back with darkroom work was you could only take black and white photos.
   Here's an example of my darkroom work.  A picture of an ammonite I did a research paper on.

Epicenites loeblichi

  I would do darkroom work in black and white if I had to but I preferred working with color.  To do photos in color at that time cost an absolute fortune in equipment and chemicals.  No, dark room work just wasn't for me, so that left doing things commercially.
  
   At the time there were two ways of getting photos commercially.  One was to buy regular film, get it developed and then have photos printed up from the negatives.  The other way was to take slides and then print from the slides.  Different paper was needed for each way.  From negatives you needed reverse negative paper, because the colors on the negative were the reverse from the printed colors.  With slides you used positive paper, which meant that the colors on the slide were the same color of the prints.
   It was cheaper to get slides than it was to go with prints from negatives.  It broke down like this you had to buy the film type you wanted.  The more sensitive the film the higher the cost, but general outdoor film ran about $3.00 for 24 shots (keep in mind this was in the 70's and minimum wage was $1.65/ hr i.e. two hours of work for me to buy a roll of film.).  If you were lucky you could find 36 shots for that price.  This cost was the same whether you got slides or prints.  The most frustrating thing was planning ahead and having the right type of film in the camera for the type of pictures you wanted so you never wasted the film.  Taking pictures indoors required different film than taking them outdoors.  If you used outdoor - indoors you had to have a very good flash to use with the camera.  Most of the time I would use outdoor film.  I always felt I was limited by the number of shots I could take because I had to buy rolls of film in 36 or 24 quantity and the expense.    Because of that I never took as many photos as I wanted to. 

   You had to get the film developed.  This too ran about $3.00 and was the same whether you got slides or if you got prints from negatives. Even if the whole roll of film was ruined you still had to pay this amount to see what pictures you had gotten or not.   It was cheaper to go with slides because now you were done and could use the slides.  So I went with slides much to my regret.  At the time I did it, it was because I was a poor college student.
  Each slide ran you about 25 cents (which is about spending 1.25 today). So each roll of film ran you $6.  If you really liked the picture a lot you could always take it in and get a print made of it for about 75 cents (3.75) for an additional expense.  Needless to say I did not get very many prints made from my slides because it used to be so expensive too.  Much to my regret. 
  The other benefit of having slides was if you ever had to give a talk you could use them in slide projectors.  It seemed like every classroom I was in had slide projectors, plus you could check them out from the libraries. I never thought of the day when you couldn't find or use a slide projector.  I always thought they would be around forever.  

  Now getting back to printed pictures, you still had to pay the same for slides plus you had to pay for the actual printed picture.  That usually ran between 15 cents per print  for 3 week delivery or it could get even higher the faster you wanted it done - $.25 for 3 day and $1.00 for an hour.  I always went with the cheapest of .15 per print.  Again because it cost so much I never took as many as I wanted to.
   I also remember always hoping that the picture would turn out.  I would hold my breath when I would get the package back and say please let there be some good ones on this roll of film.  You had no way to know if they would turn out or not, not like today where you can see instantly on a digital camera.  The opportunity to take another photo would be long gone.  You had to be happy with what you got.  Frequently they could be blurry, or the lighting bad so they would be too dark or washed out.  You just never would know until you got them back or did your own developing.  I remember one time the film had been exposed to an x-ray machine and nothing turned up on the film.  Another time the film got jammed in the camera and all the photos were on the one spot.  Because you never knew how they would be I had a tendency to take very sparingly so I wouldn't be wasting money on things that were no good.  I knew some people who would only get the negatives developed and then get the prints made, but the trouble with that it was a lot more expensive like it was to get prints made from slides.  That's why I went with slides. 

  Now it is many years later and I have all of these wonderful slides but no way to view them easily.
  I always told myself one day I will have these slides made into prints, the trouble was when I had the time I didn't have the money.  And when I had the money I didn't have the time to do it.  I finally got to the point where I had the time and the money to do it but the store that used to do that has gone out of business. Now I'm just stuck with the slides at least they are better than nothing at all. I have hundreds of slides like this.

Here's what I'm talking about - one page of many, many pages:

 A page full of slides from my field camp days in Eureka, Nevada. 

Two photos from that page, One of Lone Mountain as seen from Highway 50 (I'm just glad Silver Fox over at Looking for Detachment has shared some of her photos of  Lone Mountain - Thank you Silver Fox!!!!), the other of the town of Eureka on 7-19-77.  Even though I could get another picture of Eureka, Nevada it will never be quite the same as when I was there back then in 1977.    And here's a closer look of that slide trying to scan it into my computer.  Not much detail.

 I've tried using different lighting for the same picture but it still is hard to get a good clean image of it but there is more detail than the one above but still not as nice as when you can properly view it.  Here's two more attempts. 
 

My thesis material has this same problem as my field camp photos they are mostly on slides.  I did have a couple of  slides printed up of the people who were helping me at the time.  I did that so they could have a keep sake and to show my thanks to them. I'm glad I have at least those few prints and can view them easily now in photo albums. 

This has been my biggest regret all these wonderful geology pictures that I can't share with others on my blog. 
If I could have done it over again I would have had some prints made to go along with the slides. If I had a digital camera back then I definitely would have taken a whole lot more photos.  It just boggles my mind that on one little camera I've taken over 600 photos on a SD card that costs less than $9 to buy and nothing to down load to my computer.

Now I'm musing about:  Be this as a warning to others to make sure you have backups and more than one way to access your images, because technology is changing so much, and what you once thought would last doesn't always.

PS -7-18 Here's more on the slides issue.