Grandfather's Slides (56k warning)

MissMia · Mar 13, 2008

I did a quick scan of a few my grandfather's Kodachrome slides. I have thousands to go thru. I will purchase a better scanner in the near future. Just thought you might like to see them.

Socrates · Mar 13, 2008

MissMia said:
I did a quick scan of a few my grandfather's Kodachrome slides. I have thousands to go thru. I will purchase a better scanner in the near future. Just thought you might like to see them.

That was one hell of a film. I miss it.

Some of the shots may well have historical value. It might be worth your trouble contacting the Smithsonian Institution or even the Air Force.

KevinDks · Mar 13, 2008

Excellent, thank you for posting. I'd heard of Kodachrome of course, but couldn't really link the name to a type of image until I started Googling for it a few days ago. It is pretty distinctive, isn't it? Your grandfather's slides are great!

Ajay · Mar 13, 2008

These are wonderful. Seems he was quite a photographer. Can't wait to see more.

CanadianMe · Mar 13, 2008

Love Kodachrome , so clear and the colour is just awesome, he took great photos also. Can't wait to see more.

bhop · Mar 13, 2008

Awesome shots. Thanks for sharing... hope to see more!

Just an FYI, and a show of my nerdiness.. being a tank nerd, I can't help but notice that first pic can't be from '42. The type of suspension (HVSS) and tracks that are on it didn't come out until '44.

Socrates · Mar 13, 2008

CanadianMe said:
Love Kodachrome , so clear and the colour is just awesome, he took great photos also. Can't wait to see more.

Kodachrome was developed by two PhDs, Godansky and Mannes. The humor at the time was that the film is the best that God and man can produce.

MissMia · Mar 13, 2008

Thanks everyone. My crappy scanner doesn't do them justice.

bhop said:
Awesome shots. Thanks for sharing... hope to see more!

Just an FYI, and a show of my nerdiness.. being a tank nerd, I can't help but notice that first pic can't be from '42. The type of suspension (HVSS) and tracks that are on it didn't come out until '44.

Thank you for catching that! I took the info off of the wrong slide.

My grandfather was a tank commander in WWII under MacArthur. He and his twin brother lead the two spearheads into Manila.

kundalini · Mar 13, 2008

Wow, what a treasure you have in your hands. Your grandfather knew what he was doing. Love the colors. Great compositions.

rob91 · Mar 13, 2008

Those are some pretty amazing shots. 1-3 interest me the most, I love to see the people. I agree with the poster above, they may have some historical value so it may be worth your time to contact a museum or whoever deals with that.

This kind of thing is fun. I recently found some of my dad's old kodachromes and put them through the scanner, though I'll say they're not nearly as interesting as these.

MissMia · Mar 13, 2008

Thanks for all the kind words. I wish I had been old enough to learn photography from him before he passed.

Socrates said:
That was one hell of a film. I miss it.

Some of the shots may well have historical value. It might be worth your trouble contacting the Smithsonian Institution or even the Air Force.

Funny that you mentioned that. My husband says I should turn everything over to a museum, but I'd like to go thru it first. I've thought about putting a book together of his photos and writings from his war diary and his letters home. It's just such an overwhelming amount of stuff to go thru and match up.

abraxas · Mar 13, 2008

Looks like grandpa had a good eye. Give the museum a copy of the scans.

Helen B · Mar 14, 2008

Excellent photos of great interest.

Kodachrome is not easy to scan at its full quality - sharpness, resolution and range of tones. It has a very high density range, and not all scanners can cope with the highest densities - ie the shadow details. The real sharpness only becomes apparent at scanning resolutions of over 4000 ppi - I prefer to scan important images at 6000 to 8000 ppi. It's not easy finding scanners that can achieve that true resolution. It may be claimed by the manufacturer, but it isn't achievable in practice because of low quality optics and low precision mechanics.

Best,
Helen