Negatives

Now I know you're probably thinking this post is going to be about things I don't like, things that are bad, or something of that nature..... Well, you are mistaken!

For the past 10 years there has been a bag in my deep freeze that takes up space. I kept adding to that bag until about 2 years ago. That's when we bought our digital camera. I'm not entirely sure why I store my negatives in the freezer, my parents always did, so I took up the practice as well. I figure that if the house burns down, they aren't as likely to get wrecked in there if there's no other reason. Maybe they just store better there............ Hmmmm.

Once I got my portable hard drive for storing my pictures I knew it was just a matter of time before I needed to do something about those negatives. PChad's parents got a scanner last year that will scan negatives, so when we stayed w/ them last summer I brought my bag of negatives w/ me. I knew that there was no way I'd be able to scan them all in in the 2.5 months we'd be there, but I was hoping to make a sizable dent. I made it through 120 pictures. Not even a year's worth. Of course I did have other things taking my time as well, but the scanner worked quite slowly & the only other thing it was possible to do on the computer at the same time was solitaire. Well, after 2 weeks of solitaire, that got pretty boring too, but you had to stay by the computer to switch the negative strips.

Now that we are settled in a bit I thought it was time to revisit this problem, so I asked at the local drugstore's photo department & they said it would be $.25 per picture plus $3 for each disc that would hold about 200 pictures. I knew it would be costly, so I decided to check the electronic store to see what they had for scanners that would take negatives. They had the same model as PChad's parents for $200. At that point I was trying to figure out what my time would be worth & decided to go the drugstore route. Still it was a large chunk of change, so I checked online & found a photo shop in town that could do it. I called for prices & was told it was $2 per picture unless it was a large quantity in which case the price would go down to $1 per picture. I thanked them kindly & as a parting thought asked if they knew of anywhere else I could try. He suggested Walmart.

I'm not sure why I didn't think of Walmart before, but I called them to ask & was told the price of a disc was $5 & I could get 120 pictures on each disc. I thanked them & hung up, calculated the cost & called them back to make sure they knew I was asking about NEGATIVES not pictures to be scanned in. They assured me that was the cost, so I headed down there the next day!

Three days later I returned & was handed a bag w/ all my negatives, 10 CDs w/ my pictures covering 12 years, & a bill for just under $50! The pictures are a little bit out of order, but that's a small sacrifice compared to the YEARS I would have spent scanning them in by myself. I've made it through 6 CDs & almost 1500 pictures so far. I am totally chuffed that I finally have them all on the computer, & once again Walmart has shown me why I love it so!