All Slides are Scanned

I haven't updated the blog for a couple of days, I have been busy. But I have good news that I feel kind of sad about. The good news is the Scanning is complete. And the bad new is the scanning is complete.

I am finished scanning the photos. In the last week I have scanned 900 slides to finish. All the slides are scanned. 27,363 total scans have been done. This has taken me 5 years doing it part time. Even though the slides are done being scanned, there are still thousands that need restored and uploaded. But since the slides have started going bad quickly, I needed to scan to save as many as I could.

It has been an overwhelming task, one that I never honestly thought I would ever finish. But I did finish! But I do feel lost. I don't have the scanner sitting on my desk anymore, it's packed up. I don't have boxes of slides sitting on my desk, they are stored. There is just this big empty space now, just like I feel knowing that I don't have slides to scan anymore.

I have learned a lot about my grandfather while doing this. The things that interest him, his hobbies, and how his spelling is just as bad as mine. I felt so connected to him while scanning and working on the slides. It was like, from his little spot in heaven he was watching me and pushing me to go on when I was ready to put the whole collection on eBay and sell all the slides that way.

I have met some great people while researching these places that he photographed, had great comments on how beautiful his photos were. I know of one person that the photos have inspired him to continue Grandpap's hobby of taking photos. He's already off to a good start, has many photos in his collection already. It's good to know that he will continue taking the same photos that Grandpap has. I guess they say if you can make a difference in one person's life it's all worth it.

Well Fred's photos have touched many people's lives. Because of his photos, and the information he wrote on the slides, we can see how these places looked in the 1960's, 1970's and 1980's. We can see how beautiful bridges looked before people burnt them, or wrecked into them. We can see them rebuild Hannastown, day after day, because he went there everyday and hung out there taking photos. When the storefront of Troutman collapsed on Main Street in Greensburg Pennsylvania, we have record of that, because Grandpap went uptown and took that photo. We can see the Wagon Train in 1976 again, and relive the days that they came through our state. There are so many photos of different things that he took, that aren't around any longer that we can still see through his eyes.

He wasn't a professional photographer, this was his hobby. This was his passion. He loved covered bridges and mills. He loved talking to people about them. He loved taking photos. He didn't do it for the money, he never made money off of the photos, or the slides. He did it for the pleasure, the recording of history. I went with him for the free picnic lunches Grandma made, but I really wish I was older and he was around longer so I could learn more.

I not only have the old slides of his, but also old handwritten records, old maps, and handwritten notes that people sent him updating conditions of covered bridges. I have maps that are organized showing where bridges were located. He collected them all. These were his guides to covered bridges before the internet.

These are precious to me now since scanning and restoring, and learning about the photographs. I can look at a bridge and usually tell you which bridge it is. I can now look at the bridge number and tell you what state it is. I learned more than I wanted to. More than I intended to.

I have throughly enjoyed looking at all the photos that he took, each box held different treasures. I never knew when I would absolutely fall in love with a photo that he took. The photo that I have for the header on the blog, Silver Springs Covered Bridge, I think is an awesome photo. That is my Favorite of all the photos. It shows just how delicate these bridges are, yet at the same time shows how beautiful they can be.

I hope that you take the time to view his photos, and that you enjoy them as much as he did. And as I have.

I will be updating the website frequently as I restore the photos. Keep Checking back at the website.